Snow Secrets
by RiverDoe
Summary: After the first World Tournament, the Bladebreakers are invited to a tournament where all the secrets are hidden in the snow. RayOC in later chapters. Now Complete!
1. A Letter For Everyone

AN- This is a gift fic for a friend of mine. She's been at me for ages to post it here, so here I go. This is set a couple of weeks after the first series, and by the way, I have not seen Beyblade in ages so if the characters are a little OOC, please forgive me. And my friend isn't particularly fond of Tyson, so there might be a little bit of Tyson-bashing in here, or Tyson-humiliating as I likes to call it. And the title is likely to change some time soon.

Summary: After the first World Tournament, the Bladebreakers are invited to Scotland, and to a tournament where all the secrets are hidden in the snow. Possible pairings, not sure yet.

Disclaimer: Tyson and the Bladebreakers are not mine, and the various OCs that appear in the next chapter or two belong to a couple of my friends. I think the only one that belongs to me is the OC appearing a few chapters down the line.

**Snow Secrets**

**A Letter for Everyone **

"Tyson! Wake up little dude, you've got a letter!"

Tyson groaned and rolled over onto his other side on his bed, and promptly fell off as his grandfather stuck his head inside Tyson's room. Rubbing his head, Tyson looked up at his grandfather through blurred eyes. He wouldn't be surprised if a lump appeared right under his fingers.

"You fall out your bed?" His grandfather asked. Tyson flinched at the impossible loud sound of his granfather's voice, it hurt his ears.

"Yeah," he answered, once the pain had lowered to a dull ache. "What is it?"

"Here, this came for you this morning." His grandfather said, thrusting the letter into Tyson's hands.

Tyson scratched his head, careful to avoid the bump that had formed and opened the letter. His eyes widened when he read what was written on the thick paper.

Max almost jumped out of his skin when his bedroom door flew open, revealing an out-of-breath Tyson barely able to stand. He flashed his tired friend a smile, "Hey, Tyson. What's up?"

Once Tyson had regained his breath, he walked into the room, careful not to tread on any blade parts that were scattered around the floor, and sat down next to Max.

"Max, do you have one of these?" Tyson asked, reaching into his pocket and removing the letter he'd received that morning. Max took the letter from him and read it.

"Yeah," he said, grinning. He stood, navigated his way over to his desk and picked up the letter he'd received. The phone on his desk started ringing and he picked it up, "Hello? Oh, hey Ray… Yeah, I got one too," he said, looking at the letter in his hands, he was silent for a few minutes and Tyson made his way over to his friend. "And Kai?" Max continued, "What about Kenny? Uh-huh… Yeah, Tyson's here, he got one too… Okay, we'll see you there."

"What was that all about?" Tyson asked as Max put the phone back on its cradle.

"Kai, Ray and Kenny have all got letters." Max said, scanning his letter again before he looked back up at his friend. "Ray wants us all to meet down at the park."

"When?" Tyson asked.

"Now." Max replied, already moving past his friend and towards the door. "Are you coming?"

"Right behind you."

They said goodbye to Max's Dad and ran down to the park, taking a few shortcuts along the way. When they got there, Kai was already there, leaning against a wall. Ray was practicing and Kenny sat on top of the climbing frame, his computer on his lap.

"Hey guys," Max said, once he'd regained his breath. "What's up?"

Tyson, still breathing heavily, leaned against the same wall Kai was leaning on, and muttered under his breath, "How did you guys get here so fast?"

"Max, let me see your letter." Kenny said as he hopped down from the frame. Max handed his letter over and Kenny read it a couple of times before turning to Tyson. "Tyson?"

"Yeah, Chief?" Tyson asked, leaning on the wall like Kai, only for a different reason.

"He wants your letter." Kai remarked dryly. He pushed himself away from the wall and joined Kenny and Max by the frame.

Realisation dawned on Tyson and he reached into his pocket again, but his fingers grabbed at nothing. He mentally swore when he remembered that he'd left the letter at Max's house, and in the rush to get to the park, he'd forgotten to take it back.

"I er… left it at Max's." he admitted. Kai rolled his eyes and Ray strolled over to join them.

"What's going on?" he asked, when he saw the look on Tyson's face.

"He left his letter at my house." Max informed him.

"Shouldn't someone go back and get it?" Ray asked.

"I say Tyson should." Kai muttered, but made sure that no one could hear him.

"Where did you leave it?" Max asked.

"Er.." Tyson said, rubbing his head, he flinched when his hand brushed over the bump. "I gave it to you."

"I remember, I left it on the floor." Max said, "I'll go back and get it. I won't be long."

With that he was gone, and returned a while later to find Tyson and Kai battling it out in one of the small park stadiums. The two blades were at a stalemate and Ray was overseeing the match.

Max slipped the letter to Kenny, who read it once before bringing the others out as well.

Tyson called on Dragoon, but Kai dodged the attack with ease. He slammed Tyson's blade and Ray and Max watched as Tyson's blade flipped out of the ring and landed on the gravel at Tyson's feet.

"Seems like you need a bit more practice." Kai taunted. Tyson reached down and picked up his blade but shrugged off the challenge, saying something about going easy on Kai. He turned to Kenny.

"As I thought," Kenny said, watching as Kai's blade stopped spinning and he picked it up. "We have each got the same letter." He started, holding out the letters for them all to see. "Each has the same wording, same paper quality and same writing, only our names are different."

"Translation?" Tyson asked, but the others ignored him. He tried again, "So what are they?"

"They're invitations." Kenny supplied.

"To what?"

"A private tounament."

"A private one?" Tyson asked, confusion written all over his face.

"Yes," Kenny said, re-reading the first letter he had. "Everything's been arranged, all we have to do is show up."

"Is that it?" Tyson asked.

Ray cut him off before he could say anymore. "Where is this tournament?"

Kenny perused the letter one more time before pointing out the location. "It's in Scotland."

"What? Scotland?"

"Yes, Tyson, Scotland." Kenny told him, grabbing the letter he'd just snatched away. "So the question is: Are we going to go?"

"If everything's paid for, then yeah, sure. I'm in." Tyson said, grinning. Kai rolled his eyes behind his friend.

"What about you guys?" Kenny turned to Max and Ray.

They looked at each other for a moment when Max grinned, "Sure. I'm in."

"Me too." Said Kai.

"Yeah, sure." Ray said, smiling.

"Okay, then. Let's go!" Tyson said, climbing up onto the frame. "Er… When do we leave?"

"According to this. The flight's tomorrow."

"So we'll all meet up at the airport at ten?" He asked, looking at the others.

"Sounds good to me. But what do we tell our parents?" Max asked.

"We can say that we're going on vacation for a few days." Ray chimed in.

"Alright, then vacation it is." Tyson said, as the group headed out of the park and home, Kai held back for a few minutes.

Something didn't feel right. He looked up at the sky and saw it start to darken before hurrying on after the others. He didn't notice the figure watching the whole group from behind the wheel of the car parked across the way.

Tbc...


	2. Welcome to Scotland

Disclaimer: Bladebreakers not mine. Ms. Sheldon, Ned and Davi are though, so please don't nick them.

AN- By the way, I don't know much about planes, so I know I'm being pretty vague, and is anyone actually reading this? If so, please review, it means so much to me. And I forgot to mention in the first chapter, this is a gift fic for Ultimate-Kai-Fan, one of my close friends.

**Snow Secrets**

**Welcome to Scotland**

"Wow, look at this place." Tyson said, looking through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the planes standing in the bay.

It had been a long flight for everyone. A small, private plane had brought them over from Japan and, somewhere along the way, someone had given Tyson sweets that made him extremely hyper.

"It's an airport, Tyson." Kai said from beside his team-mate.

Tyson responded by sticking his tongue out childishly. Kai rolled his eyes and resumed looking out at the planes. The others looked round for anyone who was maybe holding a sign to greet them.

"Shouldn't someone be meeting us?" Kenny asked, rubbing the side of his head. Tyson had decided to play at wrestling somewhere over America and Kenny had bumped his head on the floor more than once.

"I don't know," Ray answered. "Maybe they're late."

"Or we're early." Max put in.

"It says here that we were supposed to arrive at four pm." Kenny said, then consulted his watch. "It's only half three."

"So what, we've got half an hour to wait?" Ray asked.

"Looks like." Kenny replied.

"Er… guys? Where did Tyson go?" Max asked, looking round.

"Whatever you do. Don't go outside."

The four turned to see a very shaky Tyson coming towards them, arms wrapped around himself.

"It's... f-f-f-freezing." Tyson replied, still shaking. His gaze landed on Kai's scarf.

"Oh no." Kai said, backing off with hishands raised in defence.

Tyson pounced anyway, and Kai found himself lying on the floor with Tyson sitting on top of him, scarf wrapped around his face.

"Why is it so cold?" Tyson asked.

"Because this is Scotland, my dears," said a warm friendly voice. The group turned to look at a large, portly woman with a pair of round glasses perched on the end of her nose. She had a handbag hanging from her left wrist and the warmest smile on her face. "You must be the... beybladers. I'm sorry, my dears, I have a terrible memory, I can't remember your names."

"We're the Bladebreakers, miss." Kenny said, smiling at the kind woman, he quickly moved out of the way of Kai and Tyson, who were wrestling on the floor, and pointed to himself, then around the group. "My name's Kenny, this is Max, Ray, and that's Kai and Tyson." He pointed at the two wrestling around on the floor.

"Of course, my dears." She said, smiling at them all.

Kai finally managed to pull his scarf away from Tyson, who was left with a very nasty carpet burn right where he didn't want one. He rubbed at his backside as he stood, leaning against the rail along the window for balance. Kai dusted himself off and managed to smile at the stranger.

"My name's Lauren Sheldon, I work for the person who brought you all here." She said, then began rummaging around in her handbag, muttering under her breath. "Oh where are they? I know I put them in here this morning. Oooh, if Tam—ah, got them."

The Bladebreakers watched as she unfolded five long home-knitted scarves out of her bag. Each was a different color, and she handed one to all of them.

"It's going to be extremely cold where we are going, my dears." She told them, after helping them wrap their scarves around their necks. Kai protested to the scarf he was given, saying that he had a perfectly good one already. Seconds later he found he had two perfectly good scarves around his neck. Tyson held his out at arm's length, staring at it like it would bite him. Ms. Sheldon frowned at him.

"What's the matter, dear?" She asked.

Tyson rubbed the back of his head, "Well, it's er... um..."

"Pink!" Someone else supplied for him. He glared around the group, but they were all concealing their laughter quite well, except for the fact that they were shaking all over from trying not to laugh out loud.

"Are you sure, dear?" She asked Tyson, who nodded meekly. "Oh, I'm sure it's red, and it only looks like pink in this light."

Tyson didn't look impressed. The scarf he held was pink. Full stop. And Ms. Sheldon wrapped it round him anyway.

He blushed when the others, particularly Kai, smirked at him, and tried to bury his face deeper into the wool.

Ms. Sheldon gave them each a look over, muttering about a lack of decent coats and she hadn't thought to bring some with her. A few minutes later, they grabbed their bags, and headed over to one of the many food shops in the waiting area.

"Would anyone like something to eat?" She offered, "It's going to be a long ride to where we're going."

After only a few arguments, they got some Pepsi and sweets and headed towards the doors leading outside.

The wind blasted snow right at them and, still shivering despite the scarves, Ms. Sheldon led them over to a large Land Rover waiting in the taxi bay.

"This storm only picked up about half an hour ago." Ms. Sheldon explained to them. "We should make it there before it gets much worse."

"Er.. Ms. Sheldon?" Kenny asked, nervously.

"Yes, my dear."

"Where exactly are we going?"

She smiled at him and opened the back door. "All your questions will be answered when we get there." She said, although she sounded a bit less jolly than before.

"You mean we won't be staying in the city?" Tyson asked, sounding a lot like he was whining. Ms. Sheldon turned a stern eye his way.

"We will have to move swiftly, marm," the driver said as he loaded the boys' luggage into the back.

"Come on, guys, it's freezing out here." Ray said, climbing in.

Kai climbed in next and sat behind the driver. Ray sat behind him and Tyson sat next to Kai.

"Er… Tyson? Can you please move so I can speak to Ms. Sheldon about where we're going." Kenny asked.

"Oh, sure, chief."

Kai would never admit it, but Kenny had probably just saved Tyson's life. Max climbed in behind Kenny, leaving Tyson to sit in the middle of him and Ray.

The car ride took almost five hours, but it felt a lot longer to those stuck in the car with Tyson. Kenny fell asleep after chatting with Ms. Sheldon about Scotland and where they were going, although he didn't get much information out of her. Kai sat with his eyes closed, meditating, and Ray, Max and Tyson sat in the back playing games for most of the ride, until they too fell asleep.

Kai's eyes snapped open when a large gate appeared in front of the car. He watched silently as a red laser beam swept silently over the car and the gate opened.

Ms. Sheldon turned round in her seat. "We're here, my dears. Oh, Kai, could you be a dear and wake the others please."

Kai nodded.

When Ms. Sheldon turned back round, Kai shook Kenny, who quickly woke with a murmur and Kai told him to wake Max. Kai picked up Ray's hand and tugged, hard. Ray bolted to the land of the living and all that left was Tyson. Ray woke him swiftly before Kai could get a chance to.

A dark shape loomed over the car as it ground to a halt. Ms. Sheldon climbed out of the Rover, followed by the driver. The Bladebreakers spilled out a moment later and stared up at the castle above them.

"Come on, my dears, we'd best get you inside before you catch a cold." Ms. Sheldon said, walking towards the front door. The driver, Ned, opened the trunk and started to unload the bags.

"You kids go ahead," he said to the boys. "I'll take care of your things."

"Okay." Tyson replied, then followed the others as they headed across the driveway, gravel crunching under their sneakers, towards the front door.

Ms. Sheldon was waiting for them inside. She took the scarves and hung them on the ancient coat stand that stood near the door, next to three other scarves, each a different color with different patterns on them.

"If you ever go outside," she said, "always take one of your scarves."

_"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy!"_

Tyson screamed, "What was that?"

"A ghost?" Ray asked, curious.

"Oh, Tamara," Ms. Sheldon said, she turned to the Bladebreakers. "You dears follow me, I'll take you to the master."

She led them through the grand hall, and down a stone passageway lined with old suits of armor, then finally into a library filled with more books than anyone could imagine.

"Thank you, Lauren." Said a voice from the dark. There was a figure sitting in an armchair next to a roaring fire. "I'm sure you would like to deal with Tamara, now."

Ms. Sheldon bowed and left. The boys turned to the figure. Tyson stepped up first, but the figure spoke before he could say anything.

"My name is Davi," she said, standing up. She stared at the group with eyes as black as night. "Welcome to Scotland."

Tbc…


	3. A Brief Explanation

Disclaimer: Nope, Beyblade characters are not mine. Davi and Ellie belong to me.

AN- It looks like I'm going to be finishing this before I skip out of this fandom and back into my favourite one. Please, if you are reading this story, then review, it's nice to know that someone's out there.

**Snow Secrets**

**A Brief Explanation**

The temperature of the room instantly plummeted at least a good ten degrees, despite the fire blazing in the hearth. Kai narrowed his eyes at the figure standing by the chair as the others each took a step back, startled by the girl's appearance. She had a large cloak draped around her shoulders and her hair was pulled back in a tight braid behind her head. But it was her eyes that unnerved him the most, black as night, with no light reflecting out of them, this was someone he did not like at all.

She gestured to the couch, and Kai noticed her nails were unusually long, almost claw-like in the flickering firelight. "Please, sit." She said, settling herself back into the chair.

No one moved.

"Would you prefer we talk tomorrow, when you are rested?" she asked them, one eyebrow raised, her fingers clasped together, elbows resting on the arms of the chair.

"Are you the one who brought us here?" Ray asked cautiously.

Davi smiled at them, "Yes, I am."

"Why?" Tyson asked, venturing a few steps into the room.

"We were going to leave this a few months," Davi said, looking at her nails. She gestured to one of the windows with dim light filtering in. "But with the weather closing in, Rena suggested bringing you all here early."

"Early for what?" Max asked, shivering as a breeze swept through the room.

"That." Davi said with a chilling smile. "Will be revealed in the morning, it's been a long day for you, I'm sure. You are free to use my family's castle," she gestured to the stacks of books around them, "but be careful; it can get a little draughty at night. And by all means, feel free to explore to your heart's content."

With another smile, Davi stood and headed over to the door. She reached up and tugged on the cord that hung from the darkness. A young woman appeared a few moments later. She looked almost exactly like Ms. Sheldon, only a lot younger, and thinner with light brown hair pulled back behind her head and clear blue eyes.

"This is Ellie," Davi said, and the woman curtsied. "She will take you to your rooms."

"Er… thank you, I guess." Kenny said, elbowing Tyson when he opened his mouth to yawn.

"This way, boys," Ellie said, turning and heading down the corridor. The Bladebreakers looked at each other, and followed a few minutes later.

Davi smiled and held the door open until they disappeared from sight. The smile falling from her face, she turned to the only other person in the room. "Was it one of them?"

The figure smiled back, "You should know. You were watching."

---

"Wow, how old is this place?" Kenny asked, excited, as he followed Ellie up a flight of stairs. Tyson trudged along next to him, followed by Ray and Max, who were talking quietly, and Kai brought up the rear.

"I'm not quite sure," Ellie replied, holding out a large lamp in front of her to light her way. "I only came here a few months ago. My mother worked here before me and hers before her. I think it is at least a few centuries old."

"Davi said that it belongs to her family." Tyson said.

Ellie smiled at him. "Yes, her family have lived here for some time. The line at least goes back to her great-great grandfather, who stumbled across it while walking his dog."

"How can you stumble across a castle?" Tyson muttered under his breath. He got a sharp elbow in the stomach from Kenny, and Ellie turned to stare at him curiously.

"Did you say something?" she asked, smiling.

"Oh, no, just wandering how far we have to go." He said, grinning a little too broadly.

"Does Davi still keep any dogs?" Ray asked.

"I believe so, they used to be in kennels out in the back garden, but last week Davi insisted we bring them inside because of the cold."

"Can we see them?" Max asked.

"Maybe, if the master lets you." Came the reply.

"Master?" Tyson echoed. "But, isn't Davi a girl?"

Ellie chuckled. "Of course she's a girl, but this castle, and the dogs are not quite hers yet, her father is very sick, but while he is alive, he is still the master of this castle."

"Oh."

Ellie led them along another long corridor, and came to a stop in front of a group of doors grouped quite close together.

"You can use these rooms while you're here." Ellie told them, settling the lamp in one of the holders sticking out from the wall. "I'm not sure if they're all clean or anything, but they should be useable."

She pointed to one door sitting in between two others, "That one's the bathroom, and I'm sure you can all figure out your own sleeping arrangements, if you need me, ring the bell or pull the cord in your rooms and I'll be right up."

She smiled at them and bid them goodnight before heading off down the corridor and disappearing into the dark. The boys looked at each other in the light.

"What now?" Max asked.

"I say we get some sleep," Ray said, trying one of the doors. "Davi said that we'll get some more information tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty tired." Tyson said, trying another door. "What about you Kai? Kai? Hey, where'd he go?"

"Through here!" Kai called from the room opposite where Tyson was standing. There was light coming from under the door and carefully, Tyson opened the door to reveal a room larger than his dojo. There was a couch, a stereo system, albeit a small one, a large four-poster bed and Kai was standing in the middle of it, looking around. He turned to look at Tyson, who was staring around with his mouth hanging open.

"Wow." Tyson managed to say. He'd seen some big rooms in the past and while they were touring, but this one had to be one of the biggest.

"I'll take this one." Kai said, walking towards Tyson, who wasn't paying the least bit of attention.

Kai folded his arms over his chest and decided to wait. After what felt like ages, Tyson seemed to snap out of his reverie and finally looked at Kai.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm taking this room." Kai said, taking a step forward and forcing Tyson to go back, unless he wanted to end up literally nose to nose with Kai.

"Oh, okay." Tyson said, backing off as Kai shut the door. He turned to the others. "What was that about?"

Max stifled a smirk and shook his head as he opened another door to reveal a room similar to Kai's.

_Click-Click-Click-Click! Click-Click-Click-Click! Click-Click-Click-Click!_

"Guys?" Tyson asked. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Ray asked, poking his head out of the room he was looking in.

_Click-Click-Click-Click!_

"That!" Tyson said.

A growl rumbled along the corridor, and a wind swept through, whipping everyone's hair and clothes around.

_Click-Click-Click-Click!_

They turned to look in the direction the sound seemed to be coming from, the way Ellie had gone, and behind them, a pair of blood red eyes watched from the darkness.

Tbc…


	4. Wake Up Call

Disclaimer in chapter one. Davi and Ellie belong to me. If you nick them I will hunt you down and destroy you.

AN- I am trying to get this story out as quick as possible, but my muse has just decided to bugger off again. It might take a while before the next chapter, but I will try to get it out by Monday. Maybe. Please review.

**Snow Secrets**

**Wake Up Call**

At first, Kai wasn't sure where he was. The soft silky sheets beneath his cheek felt unfamiliar, and he didn't recognise the scent on the cold breeze tickling his cheek. It smelled awful sweet though, and gentle. He could already feel himself drifting off to sleep.

"Thalia! Attack!"

The girl's voice completely woke him up and the memories of the previous night came back to him. The airport, Ms. Sheldon, Davi… He looked over at the clock on the bedside table. It read 05:27.

The sounds of metal clashing on metal reached his ears. He glanced over at the floor-to-ceiling windows. Snow was falling outside. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Rena, you bitch!"

Curiosity drew Kai over to the window. His breath misted on the glass and he swiped it away to peer through. His room overlooked a medium sized courtyard of sorts, with a frozen fountain in the middle that seemed to double as a beystadium. He could barely make out two, no, three figures through the snow that was starting to thicken. He saw one of them start to chase another before the snow obscured his vision.

"Like the view?"

Kai turned and saw Davi leaning against the door. In the light her skin appeared to be tanned, her eyes were still that strange black that seemed to soak up all the light thrown at them and her brownish-gold hair was pulled back in a strict French braid that hung over her shoulder. She had discarded the cloak from the night before and wore instead a simple black long-sleeved shirt with a white wolf emblazoned into the fabric from the left side of her chest disappearing over her shoulder. Blue jeans and black boots completed her image.

"You're up early." Kai replied, turning to face her. It was then that he became aware that he was only wearing a pair of pants. She grinned at the slight pink tinge that appeared on his cheeks and walked towards him.

"Didn't think you were one to be so modest." She stopped at the window beside him and looked outside. She seemed to be thinking about something.

"Just why did you bring us here?" he asked.

She closed her eyes and a smile appeared on her face. After a moment, she turned and headed towards the door.

"Why!" Kai yelled at her back.

Davi just glanced back as she closed the door behind her.

Kai ran to the door and flung it open. He could feel his temper rising. He looked left and right and found no sign of the strange girl. It was like she had just… disappeared.

"What the…?"

-

"Tyson! Come on already!"

Kai's eyes snapped open at the sound of Ray's voice. He sat up slowly and frowned at the snow covered windows. Snow was still falling outside, and the windows were just a white grey haze.

"Was that… a dream?" he wandered aloud.

"Tyson?" Max's voice filtered through the door. He sounded either very bored or very tired. Or most likely both.

Slowly, Kai swung his legs over the side of the bed and noticed the red numbers on the clock.

08:49

Was that a dream? He wandered as he started to get dressed.

Outside, in the corridor ten minutes later, Kai found Ray banging his fist on the bathroom door. Max stood on his team-mates other side, leaning against the wall. Ray was fully dressed and swearing at the door in what Kai assumed was most likely Chinese. Max had a towel hanging over his folded arms. He was wearing what Kai assumed was his pyjamas.

"Hey, Kai," the blond said, smiling.

"Hey." Ray snapped, and then went back to banging on the door and swearing at it.

"Tyson's hogging the bathroom." Max said in way of an explanation when Kai raised an eyebrow at Ray's behaviour. Kai folded his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe, a smile playing on his face as he watched Ray's antics.

"C'mon, Tyson," Ray growled, now banging both fists on the door. "Some of us actually need to go to the toilet you know."

The door opened.

"What?" Tyson barely had time to say, before Ray grabbed him and hoisted him off the ground. "Hey, take it easy, Ray. I was just looking at it."

"For an hour," Max added, smirking.

Ray looked like he was about to kill Tyson when a voice echoed down the passageway.

"Looks like someone needs some anger management…"

Everyone jumped – except Kai, who refused to admit he had jumped – and looked round for the source of the voice. Ray immediately dropped Tyson and turned around.

"Who's there?" Tyson asked, half-hiding behind Ray.

No reply.

Ray glared over his shoulder at Tyson and suddenly dashed into the bathroom. They all heard a tinkling sound as Ray relieved himself. Max suppressed a smile and Tyson let out a sigh of relief.

"Tyson, I'm going to kill you later."

Tyson ran into his room and slammed the door. The bathroom door opened and a grinning Ray stepped out.

"Man, you're cruel." Max said as he went into the bathroom.

Kai shook his head and glanced down the passage. Ellie was standing a little way down, a lantern in one hand and a smile on her face. Her eyes were shining with laughter and she was shaking with the effort of suppressing her laughter.

"Boys," She said, grinning. Ray turned to face her. "Breakfast is ready and waiting for you. When you're ready, I'll lead you down to the breakfast hall."

"Did someone say breakfast?" Tyson asked, cautiously stepping out of his room. " 'Cause I'm starving."

Ellie grinned at him and held up the lantern, her smile turned into a frown as she counted them with her finger. "One… Two… Three…I thought there were more of you."

"I'll be out in a second." Max called from the bathroom.

Tyson carefully hurried across the corridor into Kenny's room. He cam out a few seconds later, "He'll be out in a second."

"He's awake?" Ray asked, surprised. "I thought he was up all night."

"Yeah, well your banging kinda woke him up." Tyson replied.

"It's not my fault you wouldn't leave the bathroom." Ray shot back.

Kenny opened the door then and stepped out. "Hey, guys, could you maybe keep it down a little. Some of us actually need some time to wake up in the morning."

"This everyone?" Ellie asked.

Max stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed with his towel over one arm. He opened the door to his room and threw the towel inside.

"I'm ready." He said to the others.

"Now everyone's here." Tyson said, "Now let's get some food."

"This way, follow me." Ellie grinned and started walking down the corridor, with the whole team close on her heels.

Tbc…


	5. Introductions Over Breakfast

Disclaimer: Nope, Bladebreakers are not mine, but the Shadow Sirens belong to me and my friends, and Ellie belongs to me.

AN- By the way, the other team introduced here is based entirely on my friends so no flames, okay. Well, maybe not entirely, but… Oh, and I'm adding a 'Previously' because it's been so long since I've updated, it'll give anyone who's reading a quick reminder of what's happened so far.

Previously: The Bladebreakers have received letters inviting them to a 'Tournament' in Scotland. Upon arriving, they met up with a kind woman who brought them to a castle in the middle of nowhere. They have received a brief explanation from the owner of the castle about why they are there and after a good night's sleep, they are ready to meet the other team…

**Snow Secrets**

**Introductions Over Breakfast**

There was only one word to describe the scene the Bladebreakers came across in the dining hall: Pandemonium.

The boys and Ellie watched from the doorway, frozen, as food flew in all directions and landed on every possible surface, including the ceiling. The boys ducked and Ellie hid behind the massive doorjamb as a plateful of pancakes came flying in their direction.

"You might wanna brace yourselves," Ellie said, grinning sheepishly at the team.

"Aw, man," Tyson, groaned as he stood up. There was a large green patch on his side from where he'd fell in something. He lifted up the side of his jacket. "This was clean this morning."

"Tyson, look out!" Kenny yelled at him.

"Huh?" Tyson looked over at his friend. "What is it, chief?"

A bowl of porridge landed on his head.

Both Max and Ray suppressed grins as they came out from behind the door. Kai rolled his eyes and jumped down from the torch sconce he'd leapt up to. Ellie pushed the door closed with a sigh and leaned against it.

"I have to warn you," she said, glancing at each of the boys, "this team is pretty"

"Just eat it for crying out loud!"

"Strange." Ellie continued with another sigh. "They're not your usual…"

"Tamara! Get off!"

"Team." She finished, and then smiled at them. "Time to meet the Shadow Sirens."

She pushed open the door and carefully led the boys inside before closing the door behind them.

There were several wall sconces around the walls, all lit, despite the light flooding the room from the floor to ceiling windows. In the centre of the floor stood a magnificent long table big enough to easily seat thirty or forty people, and on said table, two girls were wrestling amongst the piles of food on the polished wood.

One had long dark brown hair with a hint of red, wore jet black jeans, a red tube top with a black leather jacket and she was trying to force something into her opponent's mouth. The other, who had long black hair with purple streaks and wore black pants with purple Chinese characters embroidered onto them, had a dark purple halter-top on, and was doing whatever she could to avoid the… thing, but was slowly losing the battle.

A third teenager was hunched over the side of the table, their back to the Bladebreakers, head buried in folded arms that rested on the table, and very long very pink and green hair splayed over their shoulders. It was almost impossible to tell whether the teen was male or female.

A fourth was seated at the head of the table, watching the two wrestlers with a knowing smile on her face, like she knew who would end up winning. Her feet were up on the table, displaying very long legs that disappeared under the very short light blue skirt she wore. The white-strapped top dipped very low on her chest and left little to the imagination. Her dark blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she winked at the boys when they looked at her.

"That's Lea," Ellie muttered, pointing at the blonde.

"What are they…?" Tyson asked, taking a step forward. He almost slipped on what probably had been a banana at one point, and Kai smirked at him before looking back at the two on the table.

The girl with dark brown hair had managed to straddle her opponent and the boys could then see that she was holding a piece of meat in one hand and was trying to force the other girl's mouth open with the other. The girl with purple hair managed to turn her head away and looked at the teen hunched over the table.

"Paine!" She spluttered, "A little… bleugh… help?"

"You wha…?" the teen said, looking up at them. His strange eyes took them in at one glance and he pushed himself away from the table, the chair almost toppling backwards in the process. "Ew," he said, hands covering his face as he turned away, "Can you two not do that in front of me?"

"Why not?" said Lea from the head of the table. She reached for a glass of wine sitting on the table and picked it up. Carefully taking a sip, she smiled and said, "They are gay, you know."

The two on the table looked up at her and glared. "Hey! We're not gay." Both of them shouted at the same time and pointed to the boy. "He is!"

Lea raised an eyebrow, the boy flipped them the finger and the two girls looked at each other for a moment, taking in their positions.

"Gross!" they both said at the same time, pushing away from each other and turning to look in different directions.

The girl with purple streaks in her hair frowned at the Bladebreakers, "What?"

Ellie stepped forward. "You do remember that the Bladebreakers arrived yesterday, don't you Rena?"

The other girl snorted, and brought both hands up to cover her mouth, Rena threw her a warning look over her shoulder before smiling at Ellie, "Yeah, I remember now."

"You should do," the boy – Paine – said, rubbing his head with one hand. "You were up all night trying to—mmph!"

Rena had thrown a pancake at Paine's face, and he scowled at her as he licked it off and ate it. The brown-haired girl burst out laughing and muttered something that made Paine start to choke.

Ellie grinned and turned to the Bladebreakers, "Meet the Shadow Sirens."

She pointed at the brown-haired girl. "That one's Tamara, more commonly known as Tammy, you'll probably hear her more than you see her. And this is Rena," she pointed at the purple haired girl. "The girl drinking wine is Lea, she can be a bit of a well… slut at times."

"Hey! I'm not a slut."

"You dress like one," Tamara replied. Lea flipped her the finger and sipped more of her wine.

The doors at the other end of the hall flew open and a fifth teenager stormed inside. She was dressed in long black trousers with blue flames at the bottom and had a dark blue tank top on, revealing a blue tattoo on her right bicep. Her hair had been dyed blue at the ends, was much shorter than all the others, and spiky at the back.

Lea almost choked on her wine at the angry expression on the newcomer's face. The fifth girl stormed over to her and grabbed the wine glass from Lea's hand and threw it against the wall where it shattered.

"This is no time to be drinking!" The new girl yelled at Lea, who just stared back, "Not at nine o'clock in the morning."

"That one's Raine." Ellie hurriedly whispered to the boys. "She's Paine's sister."

"Twin sister, by any chance?" Kenny asked, meekly.

"Uh-huh." Ellie nodded at him, "They are twins actually."

"They don't look alike." Tyson commented, looking from Paine, to Raine, and back again.

Raine grinned down at Lea, who started to edge out of her seat and held up the glassful of wine.

"You think that they should?" Rena asked, flicking her purple hair over her shoulder.

"They are twins, aren't they?" Tyson replied.

"Are you guys talking about me?" Paine piped up.

"No, Paine, go back to sleep." Tamara told him.

"OK." He replied and they all heard the thud as his head hit the table.

"Is he…?" Tyson asked, pointing.

"He's fine." Rena said, picking up the ends of Paine's fringe to look at his face. "He can knock himself out if he wants to."

A piercing scream rang through the hall.

"Uh-Oh." Tamara muttered, turning to look at Lea and Raine.

Raine had dunked Lea's red wine over her head and was holding a clump of hair in one hand. In the other she held a lighter.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, Lea." Rena muttered, having been on the end of Raine's temper more than once.

"Shouldn't someone help her?" Ray asked.

Rena and Tamara turned to look at him. Weakly, Tamara raised a hand and pointed to the two girls at the other end of the room. "You…w-want…" Rena tried to speak, but instead loosened the collar of her top, even though it was loose as it was.

"Th-That's pure s-s-s-suicide!" Tamara yelled at Ray, and started to move towards him. She curled her hand into a fist and Ray stepped behind Tyson.

"Yowch!" Tyson rubbed at his face, eager to remove Tamara's fist-print, and glanced at the other end of the room. "Er… Guys?"

Everyone turned to look at Raine and Lea.

Lea had a pocketknife in her hand and was tapping it against Raine's nose. Raine still had a hold of Lea's hair and reluctantly released it when Lea's gaze met her own.

"Thank you." Lea said as she stood and headed over towards the others, leaving Raine glaring at her back. She came to a stop in front of everyone. "It's truly a pleasure to meet you all."

"Er… hi!" Tyson said, waving a hand and grinning at her.

"So," Ellie grinned at them. "Are we all acquainted?"

"Pretty much." Ray replied.

Rena waved to Raine. "Hey Raine! Come on over and meet the Bladebreakers!"

Reluctantly, Raine started to walk towards the group and came to a stop in front of them. She folded her arms and turned to look away. "Hi."

"Don't mind her." Rena told the boys. "She's just pissed because Lea threatened to cut her hair off."

"How do you know that?" Lea asked, curious.

"Puh-leeze." Tamara replied. "Anyone who knows Raine, knows that the one thing she treasures more than anything else in the world… is her hair."

"I do not!" Raine growled at her.

"Do to!" Tamara shouted back.

"Do not!"

Tamara pulled her tongue out and started running towards the other exit, with Raine close on her tail. Rena just grinned and leaned against the table. She shook her head and looked round at the food that covered the room.

"So," she said, turning back to the boys. "Anybody up for some breakfast?"

Tbc…


	6. Lost?

Disclaimer: The Bladebreakers are not mine, but Rena, Tamara, Lea, Raine and Paine all belong to my friends and Davi and Ellie belong to me.

AN- Real sorry for the delay, but for some reason, my muse has decided to bugger off again to another story. Anyway, I have the next chapter to this almost ready and will post it (hopefully) next week, either Thursday or Friday. Enjoy, and if you are reading, then please review.

**Snow Secrets**

**Lost?**

"Man, I'm so hungry I could eat a whole elephant!" Tyson said, stretching his arms over his head. He looked ahead to where Rena and Lea were conversing in low tones. "Hey, you guys, where are we going? We've been walking for hours and we're starving!"

"How can you still be hungry after all the food you had before?" Kenny asked from beside Tyson.

Tyson glanced down at his friend and grinned. "Because that was only a starter. I'm still waiting for the main course!"

Kenny stopped and stared as Tyson walked on ahead. "Main… course?" he managed to stammer.

"Tyson," Kenny almost screeched, running to catch up with his friend. "You've already had four pieces of bacon, two bowls of cornflakes and six pancakes covered with all the sauces you could find at the table!"

"I know that, Chief." Tyson said, "But I want a proper Scottish breakfast!"

"Don't you mean 'English' breakfast?" Kai remarked dryly from the very back of the group.

They had been walking for quite some time after Rena had gone to get some food for the Bladebreakers to eat. Each corridor they walked down seemed to be the same one they had already been down and Kai was convinced he'd seen the same Achilles statue at least three times.

"Where are we actually going?" Max asked from behind Rena, who was leading the group with Lea at her side. Raine was still presumably chasing Tamara around the castle, and Paine had disappeared not long after the boys had settled down to eat. He'd said something about loosing his appetite, but Kai wasn't so sure. Especially after the look he'd caught being thrown his way.

"The kitchen." Lea replied over her shoulder.

"Why? We just had breakfast." Ray replied with a frown. Kai remained silent.

"No, _you_ had breakfast and thanks to Tammy and Rena, all I've had is a glass of wine. One measly little glass." Lea held up her hands to show how little alcohol she'd had. There was almost no space between her fingertips.

"Ignore her." Rena said, grinning at the boys over her shoulder. "She's always grouchy when she's not drunk."

"Hey!" Lea shrieked, clearly offended. For a second, the boys stopped and backed off as Lea looked like she was about to launch herself at Rena. Rena stuck her tongue out in reply and kept moving down the passageway.

"Tamara Pearce!"

Everyone jumped at the sound of Raine's voice echoing down the corridors. The sound was quickly followed by several slams and colourful curses that slowly seemed to be getting closer.

One particularly close explosion sounded right behind Kai, who jumped and spun round. Dust blew around the corner and Kai ran over to the corner they'd just passed. He looked round but saw nothing and turned to shrug at the others. He ran back up to the group, who had stopped to see what had happened.

"Er… guys?" Ray asked, but Lea cut him off before he could say anything else.

"We should probably get moving before we run into them."

"Yeah, we're nearly there anyways." Rena said, following Lea down another corridor. The boys looked at each other before both Ray and Kai shrugged and Tyson led them after the two girls. They turned left after seeing a piece of cloth going that way, presumably belonging to Rena's pants.

Rena glanced back after she noticed that the boys weren't behind them. They had turned right at the intersection. She tugged on Lea's arm and headed back the way they had just come.

"D'you think they've got themselves lost?" Lea asked, glancing round the intersection. There were only two ways that the boys could have gone. Either straight on, or they had turned left.

"Probably," Rena replied. "Which way do you think they are?"

"I have no clue. But I'll take this way." Lea started to go straight ahead, but Rena stopped her.

"Don't you remember what Davi told us?"

"No."

"No travelling around the corridors alone," Rena sighed. "Which means we have to stick together and no splitting up."

Lea rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Alright, then let's try this way," Rena replied, heading down the corridor to her left. With a frown, Lea followed, muttering about not being able to get her morning drink.

"This had better be worth it."

"This place feels really creepy all of a sudden." Kenny said, looking around at the numerous tapestries and paintings on the walls. "It's like we're being watched or something."

"I know what you mean." Ray said, glancing back at his friend. "It's like this place is alive or something."

"Where the heck have Rena and the other girl gone?" Kenny asked. he turned to look at Tyson. "Are you sure that they came this way?"

"Yeah, I mean… I think so." Tyson replied, slowing to a halt.

"What!" Kenny shouted. "You mean we're lost?"

"Er… Maybe."

Kai stopped suddenly and Max turned to look at him. "Hey Kai, what's wrong?"

"There's someone here." Kai replied.

"Where?" Max asked, looking around the corridor. There were several torches burning in wall sconces, several suits of armour that looked like they needed a dust and a painting of an old lady dressed in elegant Victorian clothes. "I don't see anything."

Kai reached into his back pocket for his Beyblade with one hand and pulled out his launcher with his other. Carefully, he clicked the blade into place and held it at the ready.

"Kai, there's no one here." Tyson said just as something squeaked.

Kai whirled around and launched Dranzer at the suit of armour beside Kenny. Kenny ducked and scrambled away as the suit tumbled to the floor. The others held up their hands to cover their mouths from the dust that was kicked up.

Through the dust, they all heard the sound of two blades clashing with each other and as the clouds started to clear, Kai caught a glimpse of a red Beyblade spinning off down the corridor into the darkness.

"Damnit!" Kai growled, as Dranzer stopped spinning at his feet. He glanced down and saw the deep dents that had been made in the metal. Crouching down, he carefully picked the blade up and examined it closely. If he didn't know any better, he would have said that the dents were actually teeth marks, but they couldn't be, could they? He looked up and down the passage, but saw no sign of anything big enough to make those kind of marks.

Without warning, a second blade skidded round the corner headed on a direct collision course with the boys. It swerved round and through their legs before coming to a halt next to Kai. Kai glanced down and caught a glimpse of the bit beast before the blade spun off once again. It stopped a few feet away from the team and the bit beast began to glow.

Blue light erupted from the Beyblade and a wolf's head appeared, then a whole wolf. It's fur was completely white and when the wolf moved, ripples of light blue spread over it's coat. The creature glanced at them in turn before it threw its head back and began to howl. The sound reverberated around the corridors and passageways of the ancient home.

Ellie paused in her dusting of the old library to wander whether she should find the Master or not.

Davi glanced back at the castle behind her wreathed in snow and rolled her eyes. She turned her back on it and began walking once again, and two albino German Shepherds bounded ahead of her.

Raine had her eyes closed and the others waited behind her at one of the many intersections in the castle. Slowly, she raised a hand and pointed it down the corridor to her left. "That way."

Rena and Lea ran past her and after shrugging at the twins, Tamara followed them. Paine let out a yawn and turned to head back into the kitchen.

"Come on, sis," he said. "They'll be back in a little while."

The howling stopped.

Paine turned back and looked down the corridor. Raine cried out in pain and fell to her knees. Paine rushed to her side. "Raine!" he shouted at her.

Blood began to drip down Raine's cheek. Carefully she reached up and touched the cut that had appeared on her forehead with her fingers. She pulled her hand away and stared at the blood on her hand as it ran down onto her palm.

She looked up at the corridor ahead of her and slowly pushed herself off the ground. She felt like the world was moving slowly around her and every time her feet hit the ground, they seemed to get heavier and heavier. A scream tore its way out of her throat.

"SAWYER!"

Paine followed as closely as he could and he almost ran into Raine as she was thrown back along the corridor. He managed to catch her and carefully lowered her to the ground. It was clear that she was unconscious.

"Raine?" he asked, tentatively. He tried tugging at her shoulder and rolled her onto her back.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Tbc…


	7. Fighting The Darkness

AN- Okay, massive apologies for the delay in posting, but RL is really trying to kill me with all these stupid exams right now. Updates might be far and few for the next couple of weeks. And apologies for the crap ending to this chapter and title for this chapter, my muse has decided to bugger off, again. In the meantime, enjoy and please review.

Disclaimer- see first chapter.

**Snow Secrets**

**Fighting The Darkness**

Rena and Lea skidded to a halt as the passage split into two corridors. Tamara almost ran into them but managed to grab a hold of a tapestry at the last minute. She breathed a sigh as she noted that that was one apocalypse avoided. And now for the other one.

"Which way?" Lea asked, turning to look at Rena.

"How am I supposed to know?" Rena told her, her voice rising and bouncing around the corridors.

"Well, where the hell is Paine!" Lea tried, wazing her arms anxiously.

"I don't know!" Rena yelled back.

"Hey, hey, hey," Tamara said, stepping between them before they started a catfight. "Break it up." Even though she would gladly pay to watch. Lea tried to reach behind Tamara to slap Rena but Tamara's hand was much quicker. She grabbed Lea's wrist and then grabbed Rena's when she tried the same thing. "That's it! Break it up right now!"

"What!" The two shouted in unison, both centimetres from Tamara's face.

"Now is not the time for fighting." Tamara said calmly, even though her eardrums were killing her. Slowly, she let them both go and pushed them back a few steps. Once satisfied they wouldn't attempt to kill each other, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her beyblade. Mindful of the sharpened attck ring, she tossed it up into the air and let the dark brown and red colours catch the light before catching it again and holding it up for the other two to see. "Let's just see what Amethyst has to say, eh?"

Lea rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her breasts. "Fine."

"Whatever." Rena spat, sending a glare back the way they had come.

The howling stopped.

"Er.. Tammy, I think you better hurry up," Rena whispered as a cold breeze drifted towards them. All of them turned to where the corridor split, but couldn't see or hear anything. There was only silence, and darkness, the only light source came from a torch next to Lea's head.

"Okay, Amethyst," Tamara muttered and placed her beyblade on the floor where the corridor parted. She managed to smile down at the nine-tailed fox bitbeast. "Let's do it."

Keeping her hand over the blade, Tamara began to mutter something under her breath that the other two couldn't hear. Her beyblade began to spin, faster and faster and Tamara summoned her bitbeast. "Amethyst!"

With a joyful bark, the fox leapt out of its seal and the other two jumped back to avoid the deadly tails. One touch and they knew that they could have been set on fire or thrown several feet threw the air.

"Amethyst!" Tamara's voice caught the fox's attention, and it turned to face her. Slowly, Tamara stood until she was face to face with her bitbeast and she raised her hands up to cradle it's face. The glowing red eyes bored into her own as she muttered. "Let me see what you see. Let me hear what you hear. And let me feel what you feel."

The fox bowed its head and the tails came up to wrap around Tamara's legs, arms and head. She closed her eyes as the fire enveloped them both, and when she opened them again, her eyes were completely red and her pupils were slits of black, just like the fox's. She could feel the vibrations of footsteps from all over the castle, could hear the sound of a door creaking shut far away. She could even hear the sound of snowflakes gently tapping the windows.

Slowly, she turned her head and looked left, but couldn't see anything except for a line of armour and paintings that lead off into another passageway. When she looked right, the first thing she saw was a suit of armour that had been destroyed.

"This way!" She said to the her friends, running down the corridor to the right. The other two followed and Rena frowned at the broken as she passed it.

"Let me guess…"

"Yeah, I went a little O.T.T. but…" Tamara trailed off when she caught the scent of blood on the air. She sniffed and turned round, sniffing again. The other two paused as well. Sensing nothing though, she headed further down the passage and rounded a corner. "Over here."

Ray and Max turned to look at the three of them as the Rena and Lea joined Tamara at the corner. Kenny was propped up against the wall, apparently unconscious. He was bleeding from a scratch on his ankle and his left foot was beginning to swell.

"What's going on?" Rena asked as she crouched beside the two boys.

"A beyblade attacked us," Ray explained, and pointed further down the corridor. "Then that one showed up out of nowhere and started to howl. Tyson and Kai attacked it."

Tamara looked at the corridor. Several suits of armour had been knocked over and the pieces were lying all over the floor. There was a chunk of ceiling missing as well, it had fallen not far from where Ray and Max were huddled. Further on, the dust had been kicked up and swirled in a dark brown and grey cloud. She peered through the dust, pupils narrowed, and managed to catch a glance of Tyson's red jacket and Kai's scarf. Behind them, she saw a glimpse of blue fur through the darkness.

"Sawyer's there." She told the girls, ducking as a piece of tile went flying her way.

"How is he?" Lea asked, as she pushed Max aside and checked on Kenny.

"Injured," Tamara replied, then frowned. "But I can't see much else."

Rena cursed under her breath. "How much injured?"

"Who's Sawyer?" Max asked, confused. The girls turned to look at him before glancing to each other.

"It's Raine's beyblade." Rena replied at last. "After you guys didn't follow us, she decided to send him to look for you – he's good at that – and…" Her eyes widened in realisation. "That means…"

Tamara nodded in agreement, knowing what it was that Rena was thinking.

"That means what?" Ray asked, his gaze going from Rena, to Tammy, to Lea. "What is it?"

Rena stood and looked at each of them in turn. "Lea, take Kenny and get him to some medical supplies. That leg of his looks bad. Ray, Max, you two go with her. Lea, check them out as well, just in case. Tammy and I will catch up in a minute."

Tamara nodded, then frowned. "Great. And what are we gonna do?"

"We are gonna stop this fight." Rena replied, glancing at Lea as she lifted Kenny and began to head off down the passageway. Ray and Max followed after frowning at the girls as Rena continued, "We can't let it go on much longer."

"That er…. might not be necessary." Tamara replied, peering once again, down the dark corridor.

"Why not?"

"FOREST TALYN!"

Kai and Tyson both braced themselves as a powerful wind blasted through the corridor, almost knocking them off their feet. Both Dranzer and Dragoon retreated to defend as a new beyblade appeared.

A crow swooped out of the shadows and attacked both bitbeasts, knocking them down the passageway. Tyson was pushed backwards by the gale and fell onto his back. Kai tried to lean into the wind but the pressure was too much and he ended up being pushed back as well.

Now that the dust had been cleared, Kai looked up and saw Paine standing in from of the new beyblade, the crow resting on his shoulder. Kai felt a shived envelope his whole body at the look on Paine's face. His pink and green eyes were cold and heartless, a glower of intense rage emanating from his whole body. His lips curled back and the crow, sensing it's master's anger, began to rise.

"PAINE!" A shout came from down the passage where the others were. "Stop the damn wind or we'll get blown away!"

The anger on Paine's face vanished in an instant and the wind stopped, the crow fell back onto the teenager's shoulder. Kai fell to his knees, exhausted as Tyson sat up next to him and heaved a sigh of relief.

"That was a bit close," he said with a grin. Kai resisted the urge to strangle him.

Paine carefully reached down and picked up his beyblade and held it up to the crow. In a blaze of green light, the bird disappeared into the blade. Stuffing the blade into his pocket, he headed over to where the blue blade was and gently picked it up.

"Your bit-beast is powerful." Kai remarked. Paine's eyes narrowed at him, but he made no reply and passed them to join the two girls.

"Where're the others?" he asked them.

"Lea took Kenny back to the kitchen to get him patched up," Rena replied as she brushed dirt off of her trousers. "Ray and Max went with her.

"You spoiled all of our fun," Tamara pouted. "I wanted to kick the crap out of them."

Paine chuckled at his friend. "You'll have to wait until next time."

"Maybe then we can use our full powers!" Kai called to them.

Paine froze and turned around very slowly to glare at Kai with stone cold eyes. "What. Did. You. Say?"

"We'll use our full powers the next time, you freak!" Tyson yelled, grinning at Paine.

"What did you call me, you insect!" Paine shouted back, clearly offended.

"I called you a freak." Tyson stated calmly, as though he was talking about the weather.

"You think you're strong, do you?" Paine replied coldly. "Well, you are not even half as strong as I am."

"Wanna bet?" Tyson growled, shaking his fists in anger.

Rena rolled her eyes at their childish antics and stepped between them when they moved closer to each other. "Okay, boys…"

"Puh-leeze. You are so not that strong!"

"Am too!"

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"LADIES! Can we not have a catfight in the middle of the corridor!"

Both boys quietened down for a moment before they both pointed fingers at each other. "He started it!"

Tamara wisely hid behind Kai as Rena snapped. The two watched as Rena's hands flew out, one grabbed Paine by the ear, the other latched onto one of Tyson's ears and she proceded to drag them both along the passageway towards the kitchen, much to their dismay.

Shrugging at Kai, Tamara followed, keeping a wise distance. With a glance at the carnage that the boys had created, Kai followed her, determined this time not to get lost.

Tbc…


	8. Snow Fight! Part I

AN- Originally, this and the next chapter were just going to be the one chappie, but because of my muse, they are now two chappies, which means a two part chappie. The title probably won't make sense until part two. And there is a little bit of angst up ahead. It's just a likkle bit, I swear, and apologies for any OOCness, I'm kinda trying to abide with my friend's wish to make Tyson a dumbass. Please review if you're reading, reviews make me feel sooo much better. The next part to this chapter will either be up tomorrow or Monday, it depends on how much time I get on the computer this weekend.

Disclaimer- See the first chapter.

**Snow Secrets**

**Snow Fight! - Part I**

Rena didn't stop walking until she reached a large set of double wooden doors. She had dragged Tyson and Paine along every corridor and passageway whether they liked it or not. Tamara and Kai were not far behind. Rena could hear them talking but only heard snatches of their conversation. She heard enough to know that Tamara was explaining to Kai about Raine and Sawyer.

Rena let go of Tyson and Paine and pointed a finger at Tyson. "You had better apologize to Raine for what you did to Sawyer!"

Tyson watched the finger pointed at him with growing dread. Rena turned to warn Kai to do the same and Tyson realised he didn't know who Sawyer was, and so asked, "Who's Sawyer?"

Rena stiffened and Tamara rolled her eyes as she told him, "He's Raine's bit beast."

The door swung open before Rena could take a step toward Tyson, revealing a frowning Lea. Lea took in the scene before her, Kai was standing a little further along the corridor, digesting the information he'd received from Tamara, while Tamara was trying to stop Rena and Paine from killing Tyson, who was slowly backing away from them.

"I was wandering how long you guys would take," Lea said calmly, before opening the door further and allowing them to enter.

The 'kitchen' – as the girls kept calling it – was a medium sized room with a large fireplace on the left side, a few couches and chairs grouped around it and massive floor-to-ceiling windows running the length of the room opposite the door. Snow was piled up against the glass, hiding presumably a garden of some kind from view. Along the wall to the left of the doors was a small stove and countertop, with a bar-style counter jutting out from the side with several bar stools grouped around it. There was also a small dining table big enough to seat about ten people on the right as the teenagers entered the room.

Max and Ray were seated at the bar, glasses of fruit juice in front of them. They turned and smiled at the others when they entered. Tamara immediately bounded behind the bar, which, all things considered, was the best place to hide if a fight broke out. Rena followed her, while Paine and Kai headed over to the table to sit down. Paine pulled out his beyblade to check on it.

Raine was lying on one of the couches in front of the fireplace, bandages wrapped around her head, left arm and stomach. There were also some small bruises and scratches all over her exposed skin. She looked like she'd just gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson.

"What happened to her?" Tyson asked, after he'd looked round the room.

"She's suffered some very dangerous lacerations," Lea explained, walking over to Raine to check on the bandages. "She has a nasty concussion, several bruised ribs and her left forearm is broken in three places."

One of the bandages had started to turn pink. Lea carefully reached to the one around Raine's head and took it off, dabbed at the swelling wound with a damp cloth and swiftly replaced the bandage with another.

"She'll be out of it for a while," Lea finished as she stood and walked over to another chair.

"What could have done this to her?" Tyson asked, slowly taking a step forward to get a better look. Lea didn't answer. She simply wet the cloth again, wrung it out and reached forward for something on the chair. "Hey! I'm talking to… you?"

Tyson's anger vanished when he saw who Lea was now tending to.

The cushions seemed to be trying to gobble Kenny up as he lay unconscious on them. His goggles had been removed and placed on the arm of the chair. In their place were a set of bandages.

"W-What happened?" Tyson stuttered at the sight of his friend.

"Minor concussion," Lea replied automatically. "He'll be awake in a few hours."

"When you were fighting with Sawyer," Ray explained from his seat at the bar. "Kenny stumbled into a suit of armour and it… well… it collapsed and knocked him out cold."

"Weren't you guys watching him?" Tyson demanded, whirling round to face his friends.

"We could barely see anything because of all the dust," Ray replied, beginning to stand up. Rena hurried round the counter to get between them before their little argument could escalate into a fight.

"Boys, calm down," she said, looking from Tyson, to Ray, before she turned back to Tyson again. "Haven't you got something to do?"

"No! Why didn't you stop him? Or help him?" Tyson yelled past her at Ray. He looked at Rena, "And why should we apologize? That beyblade attacked us first!"

Paine snapped. He rushed forward and brought his hand down hard on Tyson's cheek, right where Tamara had accidentally slapped him before. Tyson managed to avoid the blow and grinned at Paine when he missed, until Paine's knee came up and there was nothing Tyson could do as Paine hit the target.

Everyone – except for Paine – winced in unison.

Tyson collapsed on the floor, hands flying to his crotch as fire spread through his groin.

Paine stood over him for a moment, shaking with anger before he spoke, voice trembling with anger, "_You_ are the one who attacked Sawyer! It was _not_ the other way around!"

Paine continued to glare down at Tyson as an icy silence descended on the room. Slowly, Paine raised a hand and pointed at his sister.

"You owe her an apology."

Tyson glared at Paine as he stumbled to his feet using the couch as leverage. Paine remained pointing at his sister and glaring at Tyson as Tyson glared back.

"Sorry," Tyson muttered.

"You'd better be," Paine growled, before spinning on his heel, walking over to the table to collect his beyblade and storming out. The door slammed shut behind him. Silence descended on the room for a few minutes before someone spoke.

"What's wrong with him?" Max asked from where he sat at the bar.

"Anger management," Tamara replied from opposite him. "Both him and Raine have anger issues. They have anger management classes."

Lea chuckled from in front of the fire. "If Raine heard you say that…"

"You'd be dead," Rena finished for her.

The dark atmosphere seemed to disappear as the girls fell into good natured banter. Rena fished for food in the cupboard while Tamara tried to find out where all the sweets were hidden. Lea tended to the two wounded and the boys moved to the larger table.

Max and Ray sat on one side, watching Rena slap Tamara on the ass for trying to move her out of the way and laughing when Tamara asked for more. Tyson sat down on the couch next to his friend and watched Lea work anxiously.

Kai sat in the corner near the window and looked out at the snow. He pulled Dranzer out of his pocket and stared at it for a moment. He was sure that the dents were bite marks, now that he could examine them in better light.

"What's wrong with your blade?"

Kai looked up when he heard Lea's voice. Lea was sitting opposite him, her head tilted to one side as she studied him. Her arms were folded on the table.

"How's Kenny?" Kai asked, glancing over at the couches behind her.

"Still sleeping," Lea replied, "But don't try to change the subject. Now what's wrong with your blade?"

Grudgingly, Kai held out his hand for her to see and she giggled when she saw the dents. "Tamara bit you, did she?"

"What?" Kai asked, startled.

"It's one of her attacks, a little sneaky, but a good one." Lea told him as she took his blade and headed over to the couches with Kai following her.

"I thought you were a nurse or something," he said, as she pulled out a toolbox and opened it. Inside was a collection of attack rings, and various other beyblade parts, some in good condition, others battered beyond recognition. "Looks like I was wrong."

"My parents were both doctors," Lea told him, carefully taking his blade to pieces. "But I also know how to fix these things as well."

Kai crouched down next to her as she rummaged in the toolbox looking for something. "Not that I appreciate your help, but…"

"Kenny won't know what to do," Lea said still looking for whatever she was looking for. "He'll probably give you… Oh, where the heck are you… New attack and… Bloody hell, I hate this thing sometimes… New defence rings… Gotcha!"

Grinning, she pulled out a strange tool that looked like a pipe-cutter crossed with a hair straightener. Kai pulled back and tried to reach for his blade, but Lea got there before he did and turned her back on him as she went to work.

He tried to look over her shoulder to see what she was doing but someone grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him backwards. He yelped as he found himself thudding onto his back, looking up at Rena's grinning face.

"Don't bother," she told him. She let go of his scarf and allowed him to sit up before helping him to stand.

"What will she do?" Kai asked, frowning at Lea.

"That's her little secret," Rena replied as she headed over to the table.

Reluctantly, Kai followed her, and sat down watching Lea uneasily. He didn't like strangers handling his blade, but when Lea handed him his blade not ten minutes later, he began to respect her. She wasn't just a girl with physical assets, she was also extremely skilled as a mechanic.

His blade looked as though nothing at all had happened to it. The attack ring had also been sharpened so that it looked like new.

"Like it?" Rena asked from further down the table.

"How did you…?" Kai started to ask. Lea just winked at him and asked where Raine's was so that she could fix it too.

"Here," Tamara said to everyone's surprise. She reached into her pocket and pulled out Raine's battered beyblade. "Paine dropped it when we were coming back."

"What the fuck have you been doing, Raine?" Lea muttered, shaking her head as she turned away. "This is gonna take all bloody day, you damned idiot."

"Have fun!" Tamara called as Lea gathered her things and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Rena asked.

"I need some more tools," Lea replied, grinning at her friends. "And the rest are up in my room. I'll be back soon."

After she had disappeared, Kai stared at his beyblade and wandered what Lea was going to do to get Raine's back into shape. Could it even be done? That blade had taken quite a battering, but even without Raine there, it had tried to fight back, and succeeded in forcing Kai back along the passageway. But when Tyson had jumped in, the table's had been turned and the wolf had been forced back.

Idly, Kai wandered what would have happened if Tyson hadn't jumped in when he did. Kai looked over at Raine, to all appearances she was sleeping, and he wandered what would have happened if she had been there. Without her, her bit beast was strong, but with her to guide it, could it have beaten him?

He smiled inwardly; she was a strong and powerful opponent. He would look forward to battling her in this tournament, whenever it was going to be held.

Tbc…


	9. Snow Fight! Part II

AN- Okay, here comes the next chappie. This makes two chapters in two days. Yay! Won't be able to upload the next one though until either Thursday or Friday because I really have to study for my biology exam. Hope you enjoy this, and sorry if there's any spelling mistake etc. Please review if you're reading.

Disclaimer- See first chapter.

**Snow Secrets**

**Snow Fight! – Part II**

Tamara was bored.

Ray and Max were chatting to Rena about the dogs and she was explaining to them about what kind of dogs that Davi kept at the castle. Tamara had quickly got bored of that conversation, considering the one time that she had actually met the dogs was at feeding time and one of the Doberman's had almost bit her hand off. Stupid mutt had soon got what was coming to it. Tamara's legendary right hand! It had quickly left her alone after that.

Tyson was still watching over Kenny, and Tamara had a sneaking suspicion that the teen had actually fallen asleep on the couch due to the warmth of the fire. She was sure she could hear snoring coming from somewhere.

Kai was still staring at his beyblade when Tamara looked his way and she had a feeling he was trying to guess what Lea had done to it to make it look good as new.

All in all, Tamara was very bored.

So bored, she actually wandered back over to the kitchen to search for any sweets for what had to be the twentieth time. She searched the high cupboards first, her height making them easy targets. After shuffling around the noodles, pasta and other light weight shacks, she shut the cupboards and crouched down to look in the lower ones. Opening the tin cupboard, she snaked her hand around the piles of tins that never got eaten to the space behind. Usually people hid things in there thinking no one would figure it out, but Tamara quickly caught on that that was the first place to look. Next, she moved to the corner cupboard and the idea hit her like a cauldron.

There was something she could do after all.

She realised it when she crouched and had her head in the cupboard where Raine had hidden the Irn Bru from her and Rena, and the whisky for herself.

Slowly, Tamara backed out of the cupboard and dusted invisible motes off of her clothes as she stood. Sure enough, Tyson was sleeping on the couch next to the chair where Kenny was still sleeping. But Tyson wasn't the one she was interested in.

With a determined step, she walked over to Kai and he looked up at her, surprised, when he noticed her shadow falling over him.

"What is it?" he asked her.

She grinned and tilted her head to one side. "Wanna proper battle?"

The others looked up, surprised, as she grinned down at Kai. Kai looked startled for a moment before his fingers closed over his own beyblade.

"Sure, why not?" he said, smirking at her as he stood up opposite her. She could tell that he thought he could probably beat her, even in a fair battle, and she cackled inwardly. This battle would be so easy, and it would keep her occupied for at least a little while. Well, maybe until lunch.

"Er… Tammy, you do know that there's no bey-battling in the house," Rena said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

"Who said about having the battle in here?" Tamara asked with a sly smile. She turned slightly and pointed out the window. "Why not out there?"

The others turned and looked out the window. Most of the glass was covered with snow, but the snow didn't reach all the way up to the top and peering through, Rena realised that the snow had stopped. Maybe, just maybe, if they asked Mrs. Sheldon nicely enough, she would most likely allow them to go outside, at least for a little while.

"Ok then," Rena finally agreed. "But we'll have to use the front door."

"Why?" Ray asked, frowning at her.

"Can you see a door in here?"

"Er…" Ray searched for one, but couldn't only see glass. "No."

"So… Front door?" Rena asked, glancing around at the others.

Tamara rolled her eyes and shook her head, that way would take far too long. By the time they reached the front door, she would probably have forgotten why they were going outside in the first place. Sighing, she stood and walked round the table as the others headed for the most obvious entrance to the room.

"No, this door," she stated, pulling open the hidden corner exit. The door had been cleverly hidden, moulded into the corner like it was a corner statue. Looking straight at it, no one would ever have guessed that it concealed a secret passage that led outside.

"I forgot about that one," Rena muttered as Tamara grinned at the group. Of course, she had found out about said passage the hard way. Then again, when you try to climb up a concealed entrance to escape from your homicidal team captain, and you fall and grab onto the trigger, things can only go two ways. Down, or out. She'd gone out and had fallen right on top of Raine.

"This way much quicker," Tamara said, and had disappeared into the passage before anyone could say anything else.

"It's gonna be cold out there," Rena called after her friend, but Tamara was already too far gone to hear. Rena shook her head and turned round to face Ray and Max. "I'll go and see if I can find some coats and stuff. Stay here."

"Okay…" Max said, as Rena hurried out of the kitchen and down the corridor. He turned to look at Ray, who was watching Rena go. "But what about--?"

Tamara's scream cut him off and she came hurtling out of the secret passage, bounced up onto the table and dived behind Max and Ray.

Both boys frowned down at her and she slowly stood up, her face was as white as the snow outside. Kai watched in mild amusement as Tamara hid behind Max, shivering and pointing at the open secret doorway.

"I-I j-j-just s-s-saw…" She audibly gulped and Max couldn't move away in time as she grabbed him and hugged him, lifting him several inches off the ground, crying, "My mother's there! I swear I saw her this time! Oh, Maxie protect me! Please protect me! Please! Please protect--!"

_Thunk_

"Idiot," Rena muttered as Tamara fell to the floor unconscious, a large lump starting to form on the back of her head.

"What? When? Who-" Ray struggled for a question to ask Rena as she stepped over Tamara's now unmoving body.

"She goes a little crazy whenever she thinks she sees her mother," Rena explained, dumping several thick coats, scarves and hats on the table. She stood back and dusted her hands, "Here, take your pick."

"What about…?" Kai glanced down at Tamara. Her foot twitched and he jumped back in surprise, not that he would ever admit that he was surprised.

"She'll wake up in a minute or two," Rena replied shaking the hand that she had used to hit Tamara. "She's got a head like a damned rock."

"How'd you get these so quickly?" Max asked as he sorted through the clothes. "It must be miles to the main entrance."

"It is," Rena replied, winking at him as she grabbed her own coat. "But I know a few shortcuts that cut the time down by more than half."

"Rena, I am gonna kill you," Tamara growled as she leapt up and attacked her friend. They rolled around on the floor until Rena managed to get the upper hand and sat down on Tamara, despite Tamara's long legs trying to kick her off.

"I thought you wanted to fight Kai?" Rena asked, head tilted to one side in curiosity.

The desire to chop her friend into little pieces instantly vanished from Tamara's system and she pushed Rena off of her and stood up.

"Oh yeah, I did," the teen said, heading towards the table. She grabbed a fur coat and scarf, slipped them both on and grinned at Kai. "Now we go fight!"

Kai shrugged and headed towards the secret passage.

"Don't you want a coat?" Rena asked with a frown.

Kai just smirked at her over his shoulder. "I grew up in worse places than this. A little snow isn't gonna hurt me."

"If you say so…" Rena said, sensing she probably wouldn't have been able to persuade him. "Alright, everyone ready?" she looked at Max and Ray, who had both picked out coats and scarves. "Okay, let's go."

Tamara led the way down the passageway, with Rena and Ray right behind her. Max followed them, with Kai bringing up the rear. Several minutes later, the passageway curved to the left and opened up into a small courtyard covered in snow. In the centre stood a fountain frozen over with ice and high stone walls ran round the outside of the courtyard. Someone had used the path recently; there were fresh footprints in the snow heading round the fountain and through a gate to the right of the group.

Rena headed to a bench covered in snow and shifted as much of the powdery substance off as she could before she sat down on the cold stone. Tamara grinned and bounced around the fountain to the other side. Ray joined Rena on the bench as Kai took his position directly opposite Tamara. Max stood between them both, waiting until they were both ready.

Kai pulled out his beyblade and launcher, hooked his blade on and stood at the ready. Tamara grinned at him and a wind sprang up as she raised her hands up like she was about to participate in a Tae Kwon Do fight instead of a beybattle. Kai frowned at her odd stance, as did Max, neither of whom could see her beyblade anywhere.

"She's ready," Rena called from the side. Max turned to frown at her and the girl shrugged in reply, "It's how she launches."

"Okay…" Max still didn't get it, but he nodded in acceptance and raised a hand in the air.

"Three!"

Tamara concentrated all her energy on Kai.

"Two!"

Kai pushed Tamara's strangeness out of his mind.

"One!"

Both beybladers waited with baited breath for the final words.

"Let it rip!"

Max's hand came down as Kai launched. The wind kicked up around Tamara and both Max and Kai brought their hands up to cover their faces from the snow that the wind kicked up.

"Amethyst go!" Tamara yelled out.

Kai looked up in time to see a red beyblade smash into Dranzer and wheel off again, using the snow to cover its tracks.

"I'm not gonna give up that easily," he growled at her as Dranzer chased the other blade across the ice of the fountain until it seemed to disappear into the snow.

Tamara grinned in reply before her face set into a serious mask. Kai spotted a glimpse of red on the ice and yelled. "Dranzer! Fire Arrow attack!"

"Fox Dance!" Tamara immediately yelled in reply.

Dranzer shot out of its blade as it honed in on the red beyblade. The other blade though, was far too quick and skidded out of the way just in time.

Tamara grinned as she spotted an opening.

"Amethyst! Fox Fire now!" she yelled.

A red and purple nine-tailed fox rose out of the red beyblade and charged straight for Dranzer. The phoenix turned to try and retreat, but one of the tails caught it and held it still while the other bit-beast opened its mouth and shot blood red flames at its opponent.

Dranzer was helpless against the assault and retreated into the beyblade, which went spinning out of the fountain and into the snow. Kai stood by, rooted to the ground, as the fox turned to glare at him with light purple eyes. The fox's lip curled back, revealing sharp white canines before Tamara called on her blade to retreat. The fox disappeared in a blast of purple light into its seal and spun out of the fountain and straight into Tamara's waiting hand.

"Well, that was boring," Tamara muttered as she turned to where the others were. Ray and Max were staring at her in awe while Rena looked like she was about to fall asleep where she sat.

"H-How did you…?" Max tried to ask as she approached him. She just winked at him and turned to Kai.

"You call that a match?" she taunted, thoroughly bored now and wanting to get back inside as soon as possible.

Kai glared at her as he searched for his beyblade in the snow. Finally, he found Dranzer and stood, shaking, but not from the cold.

"The next time we fight, I won't go so easy," he said as he brushed past her and headed for the passageway. He stopped though, when a voice rang out across the courtyard.

"Well, I'm glad to see everyone's getting along so nicely."

They all turned to look at the figure sitting on the wall watching them and Davi grinned down at them.

Tbc…


	10. A Detailed Explanation

AN- Okay, not quite the chapter I was hoping to put up, but the other one was far too long so I had to cut some things out, otherwise it will have been as long as the past two chapters have been. And yes, the dogs will appear in this story, but not in this chapter. And the next chapter might take a while If you read the end of this one, you'll find out why. Anyways, in the meantime, please review. I only have about eight chapters to go before this story is finished and I go back to my other fanfics. As usual, apologies for any OOCness, grammar, spelling errors etc… Pretty please review.

Disclaimer- See chapter one.

**Snow Secrets**

**A Detailed Explanation**

The sight of Davi smiling down at them all sent shivers up Kai's spine. The wind suddenly got a lot colder and he began to wish that he had actually picked up a coat, or at the very least, one of the scarves that Rena had brought them earlier. Davi's eyes darted round the group, searching for something and she frowned down at Rena.

"Where're the others?" Davi asked, confused.

"They're still inside," Rena answered, nodding her head in the direction of the snowed up wall. "Why?" she asked as she frowned up at Davi.

Davi's smile disappeared into a thoughtful expression for a moment before she jumped from the wall and landed in a crouch. Her cloak automatically fell around her when she stood up and she brushed snow off of her shoulders as she spoke, "There's something I need to explain to you, and it would be better if everyone was present."

"I wanna go back inside!" Tamara said, folding her arms over her chest and pouting childishly. "It no fun out here."

Rena ignored her friend and shoved her hands in her pockets in an attempt to keep them warm. She too had noticed the drop in temperature whenever Davi was around. "What do you want with the others?" she asked.

"I told you," Davi replied, heading towards the secret entrance. "I need to tell you guys something."

"Like what?" Rena wandered aloud as she too headed inside.

A few minutes later, everyone was inside and as Tamara was the last one to come inside, she closed the door behind her. Rena immediately went over to the kitchen to put the kettle on the boil.

"So," she called over as the others removed the coats and scarves they had picked up and seated themselves around the table. Davi remained standing. "What is it that you want to tell us?"

"It's about the tournament," Davi replied, leaning against the window. "And you might want to wake the others up as well. It'll be better if I explain everything now, rather than you try explaining it to them later."

Tamara grinned evilly at this. Max and Ray, who were seated either side of her, wisely moved as far away from her as they could and watched as she stood and walked over to the kitchen area. Rena suppressed a grin and moved aside as her team-mate opened one of the doors and removed a bucket. Carefully, the taller of the two lugged it round to the couches and held it up over Tyson. A moment later, she tipped the bucket upside down.

"THAT'S COLD!" Tyson yelled as a bucketful of freezing cold ice fell on top of him. He leapt up from the couch and began to brush as much of the ice off of him as he could before it melted.

Unfortunately for Tyson, the fire had been going for a while, which meant that the room was very warm and the ice melted almost immediately.

"Who did that?" Tyson yelled at the others over the back of the couch.

Tamara grinned and hid the bucket behind her back. "Don't look at me."

"Aw, man, this is my favourite shirt, too, and now it's all wet," Tyson moaned, flopping down onto the couch. Again, his luck was against him. His shouting had woken Raine up, and she was not happy about it. Quietly, the leader of the Shadow Sirens stood up and walked over to Tyson.

Tyson noticed her shadow too late.

Her fist came down and whacked his head.

The others all winced in unison.

"OUUUUCCHHHH!" Tyson shrieked and carefully placed his hands on his head to assess the damage. Already, a large lump was starting to form and he wasn't sure how long it would be before it disappeared.

"Cold, cold, cold, cold," Tyson chanted as he moved.

Tamara rolled her eyes and stood over him. She leaned down and Tyson realised what she was going to do when it was too late. She pulled his shirt, jacket and cap over his head and turned to the fireplace.

"What was that for?" Tyson shrieked and watched in horror as she moved closer to the fireplace. "What are you going to do? Burn my clothes?"

"No, you idiot," Tamara replied as she wrung each garment out one by one and placed it over the mantelpiece, using the small statues to keep them in place. "Since you're complaining about being cold and wet, I'm going to leave your clothes here to dry. Although burning them wouldn't be so bad," she added under breath.

Davi cleared her throat and everyone turned their attention back to her.

"Oh, hi Davi," Raine said when she noticed the other girl's presence. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to explain the details of the tournament," Davi replied, nodding at the team captain.

"Oh, okay, but…" Raine trailed off as she glanced at the other people in the room. "Paine isn't here."

"I've already talked to Paine about this," Davi held up her hands to prevent any further questions. "Now, please, do not interrupt. This is very important.

"The plan is very simple; there are four matches in the first round. These are one on one matches and there are no rules you need to follow. The match is over when a person either gives up or their blade is destroyed, so you will only get one chance to beat your opponent.

"There will be a day's break between each of these four matches and I must ask that there be no foul play between either team during those days. After the winners between those first four matches have been decided, you will be allowed a three day rest to either train or recuperate from your battle.

"After that, we will start the second round. This second round will be the same as the first, there are no rules and the match is only over once someone either gives up or their blade is destroyed. This second round will be composed of two matches. You will be informed of the third round once the second is over. That is all for now."

She headed towards the door, opened one and paused in the door, "Oh, and one more thing. You have exactly one month to train. Ellie shall bring you to the arena when you are ready."

With that, she left, closing the door quietly behind her. Everyone remained still for a moment before the kettle began to whistle. This seemed to motivate everyone to move and Tyson was the first to the door.

"Hey, we got a few questions about this!" he yelled, skidding out into the corridor. "Hey, where did she go?"

Ray wasn't far behind him. He also had questions that he wanted the answers to, but it looked like they would have to wait for now. It seemed that Davi had just disappeared into thin air. He wandered if there were any other secret passageways in this castle, and thought that if Rena could make it to the main entrance and back in a matter of minutes, and Davi could disappear so quickly, then there probably was.

Wearily, they trudged back into the kitchen and Rena made hot chocolate for each of them. She gave them the mugs and sat down next to Ray. Tyson plonked down in front of the fire, hoping for his clothes to dry out as soon as possible because even though the fire was blazing merrily in front of him, there was a breeze coming from somewhere and it was really, really cold. Raine dropped onto the couch she had been sleeping on and fought to stay awake. Tamara sat down opposite Max and once more, found herself completely bored. In fact, the fight with Kai had done absolutely nothing to entertain her.

For a while, no one said anything, they just sipped on their hot chocolate and thought about the upcoming tournament. Tamara glanced out the window and thought about what they could do. She grinned once more and turned to the others. Everyone had grim expressions on their faces and as Tamara looked closely, she came to the conclusion that the grimness did not suit them. So why not liven things up a little? How about a nice game of—

"Didn't you say that Davi kept a few dogs?" Ray asked Rena.

Startled, Rena took a moment to comprehend what Ray had just said before she nodded, "Yeah, she's got a couple of Dobermans, two white German shepherds, a Husky-wolf cross and I think she's either got four or five Collies and a sheepdog, I think."

"Can we see them?" Max asked.

"Er…" Rena looked out the window. The snow had picked up again, and she couldn't even make out anything in the courtyard. "Maybe not, the wind's picked up again out there. It looks like there's gonna be another storm tonight."

"So what can we do?" Max asked, lowering the mug from his lips and licking off the chocolate moustache.

"Train?" Kai suggested sarcastically.

"I got a better idea!" Tamara said, grinning at them.

"Like what?" Rena asked with a frown.

"How about we play truth… or dare?"

Tbc…


	11. Truth Or Dare?

AN- Just letting you know that there were actually a few more dares in this chapter but they are covered in the next. Apologies for the OOCness of the characters and any spelling and grammar mistakes and so forth. Please leave a review if you like. Reviews make me feel so much better.

Disclaimer- See chapter one.

**Snow Secrets**

**Truth Or Dare?**

Raine had been taking a sip of chocolate when she heard Tamara's suggestion of 'Truth or Dare' and Tyson quickly found said chocolate sprayed all over him as Raine spluttered it all out again. Shaking, she stood up and pointed the mug at Tamara.

"We are NOT going to play truth or dare!" Raine yelled once she was sure she could breathe. Tyson struggled not to hurl as he wiped chocolate off of his shoulders.

"Aww…" Tamara looked disappointed. She was close to pouting again and shyly asked, "Why not?"

"Don't you remember what happened the last time?" Raine growled back as she tilted her head and glanced at Kai, willing the hyper girl to remember what had actually happened.

"Nope!" came the reply, accompanied by a grin.

Raine smacked her head with one hand and winced when she felt pain flash through her temple. She cursed under her breath and dropped back down onto the couch, hoping that whatever they ended up doing, it was a game like Monopoly or… something..

"Okay…" Rena said, wandering what else they could do when Tamara came up with another alternative.

"Spin the bottle, then!" the tall girl said, bouncing up and down. "We haven't had any problems with that one before!"

Raine smacked her head again, there was no way she was going to be exposed to that little monstrosity and she knew what Tamara's next suggestion would be, the tall girl had no problems when it came to thinking up things to do.

Finally, the team captain gave in and muttered, "Okay, we can play truth or dare."

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" Tamara squealed in delight and clapped her hands together. Rena rolled her eyes as the tall girl bounded over to the couch to give Raine a hug and thank her.

Smiling as Raine attempted to push Tamara away, Ray and Max made their way over to the couches. Rena remained at the table and frowned at Kai.

"You're not going to play?" she asked him.

Kai shrugged and looked out the window, a thoughtful look on his face. He was wandering what would happen at the Tournament. Davi hadn't told them who they'd be going against. What if he ended up battling his own team-mates? What would happen then?

"C'mon Kai!" Tamara called to him.

Rena grinned at Tamara before walking up behind Kai and grabbing his ear. As Tyson had found out earlier, Rena had very long nails, and when she twisted Kai's ear, he immediately stood up, struggling not to cry out in pain. Rena dragged him over to the couches and pushed him down next to Raine while the others tried not to laugh at the sight they made.

"Either everyone plays, or no one does," Rena explained as she sat down between Ray and Max on the couch opposite the fire. Max was on her right and Ray was on her left, his arm stretched along the back of the couch. Kai cursed under his breath and folded his arms over his chest as Tamara flopped down on the floor.

"So, who's gonna go first?" Raine asked once everyone was seated.

"More like what are we gonna do about sleepy here," Tamara muttered, poking Kenny's foot to see if he would wake up. He didn't move a muscle.

"Leave him be," Ray said as he leaned back into the cushions. "He can be quite a sleeper when he wants to be."

"Yeah…" Tyson grinned, scratching his head with one hand. "Remember that time when we were in America--"

"Tyson! Truth or dare?" Rena blurted out before Raine could make a move. Raine shot the other girl a glare, which was promptly ignored. She had been looking forward to hitting Tyson again since he had woken her up earlier.

"Huh? Why do I have to go first?" Tyson asked, pointing a finger at himself.

"Truth… or dare?" Rena growled at him. "It's a simple question."

"Er…" Tyson frowned at her until he caught the definitely cold feeling coming from Raine and audibly gulped. "Truth," he answered, hoping that Raine wouldn't attempt to kill him.

Rena grinned and sat back, thinking of something she could ask him. But she could only think of one thing… and he probably wouldn't answer it even if she threatened to stick Paine on him, although if she did that then...

"I've got one," Kai said with a smirk. Tyson started to look worried at the gleam in Kai's eyes.

"What? What? What?" Tamara asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Kai smirked at her and leaned across to Max to whisper it in his ear. Max tried to suppress his laughter when he heard what Kai had said and he turned to Rena to whisper in her ear what Kai had told him.

Tyson started to look more than a bit worried.

Rena bit her lip to keep from bursting out into giggles. When she was sure she could speak without laughing, she turned to Tyson.

"How many men have you been with?"

The others burst into fits of laughter and even Kai managed a smile at the look on Tyson's face as he struggled to comprehend what Rena had just said.

"And the forfeit…" Rena paused for a moment to think up a suitable one. Her gaze landed on Kai's smug face and she smirked. "Your forfeit is to kiss Kai."

"Gross!" Raine yelled, flinging her arms up in front of her.

"Not an image I want in my head…" Tamara agreed and tilted her head to one side, looking at something that only she could see. "Although…"

Horrified that his plan had been turned against him, Kai turned to Tyson and grinned. Hopefully, the other boy would be stupid to figure out what Rena had actually said.

"One… No, two," Tyson said, grinning at them.

Rena was the first to burst into fits of laughter, swiftly followed by Raine, Ray and Max. Tamara was still staring off into space, daydreaming, and Kai struggled not to laugh at Tyson, who was looking at them all as if they were idiots.

"Well… Paine's going… hahaha… to be… happy…" Raine managed to say.

"What?" Tyson asked, confused. "You asked me how many women I'd been with."

Rena shook her head, her face turning bright red from laughing so hard. "No, you idiot. I asked you how many MEN you'd been with…"

"Oh yeah, Paine is going to be verrry happy about this…" Raine said, rolling the 'r' and burst out laughing once again.

Tyson's blushed in embarrassment, and gradually his whole upper body turned red, which only made everyone else laugh harder.

Two hours later found the whole group laughing at Rena as she attempted to do a headstand in front of the fire. If she fell backwards, she'd be singed by the flames and if she fell forwards then she would land on a grinning Tamara. And if she fell at all, she would have to forfeit and kiss Tyson, and that would be something that she would never do. Although if it was Ray then it would be a whole different matter.

Raine held the stop-clock and glared at it when the beeper went off, signalling that Rena had been doing the headstand for the past three minute, which was much longer than she had been able to do it before. So her plan had worked! She knew that with a little bribery then Rena could do anything. Now all she had to do was avoid the damn claws.

"Alright, you can come down now," Raine muttered miserably.

Grinning, Rena tumbled to the floor and pulled her shirt down back over her chest. Tamara's smile disappeared and she folded her arms over her chest and pouted again. She liked that view, she wanted the shirt to remain up so that she could see a little more of it.

Rena crossed her legs and wiped the sweat off of her forehead as she looked around the group, so far, almost everyone had been truth or dared something, except…

"Raine, truth or dare?"

"What?" Raine asked, half asleep. She hadn't moved at all from the spot she had been sitting in earlier and it was nice and warm and comfy and she could feel herself falling asleep again… until:

"Truth or dare?" Rena repeated a little louder.

"Truth, you fool," Raine replied, sitting up in a bid to stay awake. "Do you really think I'd do a dare?"

"If it involved a certain… someone…" Rena trailed off suggestively, glancing in Kai's general direction. "Anyways… Hmm…"

"I got one!" Tamara squealed, bouncing up and down on the couch next to Rena.

"What now?" Raine asked, starting to fall asleep again.

"Where's the alcohol?"

That jerked Raine back to the land of the awake people.

"Th-th-there is n-no alcohol in here," she managed to reply and looked at the wall above her head.

Tamara grinned knowingly at her, "If you lying like I know you are then you have to kiss Tyson…"

"Okay! Okay!" Raine screamed, standing up and pointing to the kitchen. "It's in the cupboard under the sink at the very back. There's three or four cases of beer, seven bottles of whisky and a small barrel of rum."

Tamara grinned and bounced into the kitchen. Sure enough, the drinks were all there. She couldn't stop grinning as she pulled out one bottle after another.

Things were just starting to get interesting tonight.

Tbc…


	12. Time to Train

AN- Okay, that's this chappie finally completed. Apologies for any OOCness, spelling or grammar and stuff, particularly at the end, SOMEONE got impatient. Anyways, there is a lot of Ray/OC in this chappie so no flames for it. And please review if you're reading. The next chappie is going to be the start of the Tournament, so should hopefully be up soon. Enjoy. By the way, QuickEdit is being annoying so 'x's are now breaks.

Disclaimer- See Chapter One.

**Snow Secrets**

**Time to Train**

"Tyson…Get up!"

"No," Tyson replied and proceeded to roll over so that he was on his other side and his back was to the annoying person trying to wake him up out of his wonderful dream.

"Get up," Kai repeated, arms folded over his chest and patience running paper thin.

"NO!" Tyson yelled this time and dragged the covers over his head.

Kai rolled his eyes at Tyson's childish display and walked out of Tyson's room. At some point during the night, everyone had been pretty much drunk or hyper and Ms. Sheldon had appeared and told them all to get to bed. At first everyone had resisted, but then she had threatened to send them all home and they had quickly cooperated. Particularly after Tamara had tried to tell her to 'go away' and had received a smack on the behind for her cheekiness.

Ray's room was literally a mess and Kai had to watch his step unless he wanted to step on some random sharp object. Kai seemed to recall something about Ray and Rena sneaking in there during the night and did not want to know what they had gotten up to.

"Ray! Are you awake?" he asked the prone figure on the bed.

"Rena?" Ray replied sleepily as he struggled to sit up. "That you?"

"No, it's Kai," Kai replied with a sigh. "Do you want to train with me?"

Ray frowned at the clock on the wall and noticed the time the luminous hands pointed to. "Kai its 5am, give me another hour," he replied, and went back to sleep.

Kai sighed and made his way back to the door, closing it softly behind him. There was no use in even trying to wake Max up sometimes, and Kenny wouldn't really be of any use to him. Cursing under his breath, the captain of the Bladebreakers headed down the corridor towards the stairs.

Half an hour later found him still wandering around the endless corridors and although he didn't want to admit it, Kai knew that he was lost. He had no clue how anyone could live in such and place and didn't even want to know how Davi could stay here and not get lost.

"Lost?"

A voice asked from behind him. He jumped and turned to find Davi standing behind him with a smirk on her face. Speak of the devil, he thought, and she shall appear.

"The exit is this way," she said, pointing over her shoulder at the way he had just come. "Here, I'll show you," she said, starting to walk down the corridor. Kai glanced down the other way, and decided to follow her before he got lost again.

x

Raine whistled a cheerful tune as she approached the corridor where the other Sirens were sleeping. She was carrying a bucket in each hand and grinned when she stopped in front of a room with a white tiger poster on the door. The tiger was splashing through a river and there were a few words written next to it in someone's scruffy handwriting.

"Do not enter, eh?" Raine read the words aloud and shrugged before opening the door and walking inside.

A moment later, a terrifying scream echoed along the corridors and Raine walked out of Rena's room like nothing had happened, although the bucket was a lot lighter and she was slightly deaf in one ear. Lea, being the light sleeper that she was, flung her door open and glared at Raine.

"What is it?" She asked sleepily.

Raine shoved a bucket of water into Lea's chest, with some of it slopping over the edge and onto her £300 pound nightdress. Luckily for Raine, Lea was too sleepy to notice, otherwise there would be one team captain minus her head walking round right now. Raine reasoned that Lea probably hadn't gotten much sleep last night because of the noise that the others were making and carefully moved out of the other girl's way as she headed towards the bathroom.

Sighing in relief, Raine moved onto her next target, Tamara.

Five minutes later, a group of very sleepy Sirens – with the exception of Raine – stood in their bedroom doors, soaking wet and glaring at a very dry Raine.

"Look, guys," Raine started, and glared at Tamara as the other girl yawned. "We really need to start training, because although those boys don't look it, they are pretty powerful."

"And?" Tamara asked, suppressing another yawn. "I can beat them all."

"The only reason you won yesterday was because you had the snow to help you," Raine told her. "We don't know what kind of terrain we're going to be working with in this Tournament so we need to be prepared for absolutely anything."

When she had finished her speech, Raine looked at the others. Rena was slowly nodding off while standing in her doorway, but was also muttering something that sounded like she was actually agreeing with Raine for once.

Lea merely held out her hand and asked to check everyone's blade before they started to see what modifications she could make.

Paine wasn't there; he had somehow managed to get up at four that morning and had disappeared once more.

Tamara just yawned and repeated, "I could take them all with my eyes closed…"

She turned to go back into her room, but Raine had lost it and grabbed the other teen by her hair and began to drag her down the passageway.

x

Kai wasn't sure whether he had just somehow crossed a thousand miles of ocean or not. Davi had led him to a large heavy door somewhere he guessed was along the Eastern side of the castle, and when she had opened it, the outside was identical to Tyson's dojo in Japan. In fact, it was almost exactly like that, the only exception was that it was completely covered in snow.

"The others aren't up yet?"

Kai turned to look at Davi, who was standing right beside him, and frowned at her. "No, they're not. Why?"

Davi smirked before turning to head inside. "The Sirens are already up and about, and your friends need to train a lot harder if they really want to defeat those girls."

"Hey, Davi," Kai said before the girl could disappear again. "Those girls, who are they really?"

"They are the strongest members of their teams," Davi told him after a moment. "And you probably shouldn't underestimate them like you did yesterday. That was very foolish of you, Kai, I hope you do better in the Tournament. Work on your defence a bit more, maybe then you'll be able to survive their attacks."

Kai frowned at her, but she had already disappeared. He growled in annoyance and looked out across the grounds. What did she mean by working on his defence? He already had a good attack as it was…

"KAI!"

Jerked out of his thoughts, Kai turned and found Ray standing behind him with a smile on his face.

"You ready to train?" Ray asked as the others caught up.

Kai smirked at Ray and fished Dranzer out of his pocket.

"I'm ready whenever you are."

x

"CAN WE TRAIN PLEASE!"

Raine's shout was ignored by the rest of the team as they discussed what had happened last night. Raine's throat was raw from trying to get everyone to train, and her face was completely red. She stood behind the couch in the Kitchen, while everyone else was grouped around the fire.

"I had the most wonderful dream last night…" Rena was saying, head in her hands and a spaced out look on her face. "It was about Ray… and it was so good…. And he was so--."

Tamara's hand clamped over her friend's mouth. "Girl, we do not need the damn details, and besides, didn't you actually sneak into his room last night?"

"Did I?" Rena asked, a confused look crossing her face. She shrugged, "Oh, who cares… Tammy, I forgot to thank you for coming up with that wonderful dare last night."

"Only doing my job," Tamara replied, "And thank you for getting everyone to play Twister, I so love that game! I am the BEST at it!"

"CAN WE PLEASE TRAIN?"

"That would probably be because of those gymnastic classes you had as a kid," Lea called from the stove where she was cooking breakfast. "I can't believe you guys didn't think to come and get me."

"Sorry, we thought you were sorting out our blades," Tamara replied, grinning. "But next time's a promise."

"Oh, that reminds me," Lea said, drying her hands on a towel and heading over to where her bag was sitting on the table. "I made some slight modifications to your blades. They should now launch at a greater velocity than before and…"

"Ugh… big words," Tamara muttered, throwing her head into her hands.

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO TALK!" Raine yelled at them. "NOW IS THE TIME TO TRAIN!"

"Well, they can't exactly train without their blades now, can they?" Lea joked.

Raine narrowed her eyes at her friend. "Do not mock me."

"Hey guys," Paine said as he headed towards the stove. "Whatcha cooking?"

"Paine! Please, you have sense," Raine said, running over to her twin brother. "Train with me, please?"

"Er…" Paine did not want to piss his sister off when she was like this, but then again, her pissed off meant that he could sneak away again. "I've been up and training since 4am, I haven't even had my breakfast yet."

Raine had been rapidly losing her temper, and now she snapped. Roaring, she pulled out her beyblade and launched it at the others which geared them all into action.

"CAN WE FUCKING TRAIN NOW!"

x

Ray grinned as he remembered that little kiss he had shared with Rena. Well, true it was a dare, but still… the ones that they shared in his room were definitely NOT dares, oh no, they were not… Course, that was almost a month ago now, soon it would be time for the Tournament to start. He hoped against hope that he would not have to battle Rena. He wasn't sure whether he would win or not.

Still grinning at his pleasant thoughts, he almost missed what was going on between Max and Tyson. The two had been battling for nearly an hour straight and still hadn't found a way to beat each other. Max's defence was completely solid and Tyson could find no way in at all.

"Thinking about Rena again, Ray?" Kai asked, smirking as he approached the other teenager.

"What? Oh, am I that obvious?" Ray replied with a blush.

"Yeah…" Kai said, turning to watch Tyson and Max. "Who do you think we'll be up against?"

"You guys will have to wait and see," Davi said as she joined them.

"What are you doing here?" Ray asked, standing.

Davi grinned at them, "Don't worry, I'm just here to keep an eye on you guys."

"Doubtful," Ray spat at her. Something was getting on his nerves about this girl, particularly the way she would just show up out of no where and give them cryptic messages that they couldn't figure out.

"You should probably stop fighting soon," Davi told them. Ray narrowed his eyes as Davi looked up at the sky. "The Tournament starts tomorrow and you'll need all the rest that you can get."

With that, she walked off and disappeared inside. Ray wanted to yell at her to get back here, but instead he suppressed his annoyance and turned to Kai.

"I'm going to rest now," he told his friend, and stormed inside without waiting for Kai to answer.

That night, Ray didn't get much sleep. He heard the others around an hour later heading to their rooms and just rolled over in his bed. He knew that Kai hadn't liked Davi when they had first arrived at the castle, but gradually, Kai's suspicions had disappeared, which meant that he had accepted her for who she was and had determined that she wasn't a threat.

Eventually, Ray hadn't been able to stand it and had got up, dressed and headed to the window. He threw it open and managed to smile at the refreshingly cold breeze that flew inside.

He meditated for several hours standing on the windowsill before he heard a knock on his door. Opening his eyes, he saw that the sky had lightened, although it was still snowing, and turned to look at his door. The knock came again. He sighed and jumped down before grabbing a robe and heading over to it.

Ellie stood on the other side, smiling shyly at him. "The Master requests your presence," she told him. "The Tournament starts today."

Tbc…


	13. The Tournament Begins

AN- I am on a roll with this story. I love it to bits, and sorry, Tamara for the boring fight before. I hope that this will satisfy you. I couldn't remember any of the dishes either so I just kinda made up my own, okay. And as always, review if you're reading.

EDIT- I have reposted this chapter with a little more at the end since my friends have now decided to change all of their attacks. The next chapter will be a little different than before and so will Ch15.

Disclaimer- See chapter one.

**Snow Secrets**

**The Tournament Begins**

Once again, the Bladebreakers found themselves following Ellie down the winding corridors of the castle. She led them down several flights of stairs and they managed to recognise the general way that they were going. It seemed that they were heading down to the Dining Room again, but instead of going into the large hall, Ellie led them past it and down another small flight of stairs. At the bottom, the Shadow Sirens and Davi were waiting for them.

"Now that everyone's here," Davi said, as the boys joined them. "Thank you, Ellie," she said to the maid, who bowed and hurried back up the stairs. "Now that we're all here, we can begin."

Davi raised a hand, placed it on one of the doors and slowly pushed it open. The hinges creaked in annoyance as the thick door swung open and once that was done, she motioned for the others to step through before carefully closing the door behind them.

"Wow…" Tyson said, as he gazed down at the beystadium below them. They had emerged on a platform that ran around the outside of the room, which was easily the size of a small football field. There were seats to sit on at opposite sides of the room, and two staircases at either side of the boxes, leading down to the stadium below. Light filtered in through a large dome window over head through the snow and there were also several fluorescent lights along the edge of the ring.

The beystadium itself sat in the centre of the room, with a small platform either side for the players to stand. At the moment, the stadium was bare, and reflected the light shining down from above.

Several of the bladers had to sit in the seats, afraid that their legs would give way and that they wouldn't be able to stand.

"Ladies, could you please stay here," Davi said to the girls, "Gentlemen, follow me to the other side, please."

As Davi started to walk off, the boys managed to snap themselves out of their reveries and followed her. When they reached the other side, she told them to sit and wait until their name appeared on the screen to their right. When that happened, they were to go down one of the staircases and stand on the platform on their side.

"Hey, wait, don't you need a referee or something?" Max asked before Davi could leave.

Davi shook her head, "No. I trust you can all follow a beybattle on your own."

With that, she turned and headed towards another box halfway between the two opposing boxes.

"If your name appears, then please, do as instructed and approach the dish," she called out, her voice amplified by the domed ceiling and stadium below. "Can we have clean fights please, and remember that this is only the beginning…"

She sat in the foremost seat and stared at the screen across from her. After a second, the screen began to flicker, and a name appeared.

"Yes! I get to go first!" Tamara shrieked, making the others sitting around her wince.

Davi smirked at this, un-predicted, but she had no doubts that the result would be the same, particularly when she saw who Tamara was up against.

"Uh-oh," Max muttered as he saw his name appear on the screen. He had to go up against her? But she had managed to defeat Kai without even breaking a sweat… and she was really strong, and really cute and—

"Hey, Max," Kenny said from beside his friend. "From what you all told me of Tamara's fight against Kai, she used the snow to cover her tracks, making it hard for you all to see her. If the data I have here is correct, then her bit-beast uses the elements around it as camouflage and attacks possibly from behind or the side. She won't go for a full on attack because she isn't strong enough. I'll try to find out more, but the signal in here is very weak."

"Thanks, Chief," Max said, grateful that now he had a little to go on. He didn't like rushing into a battle head on, and as he slowly descended the steps, he wished he didn't have to go up against Tamara. When he realised what he was thinking, he swiftly shook those thoughts out of his head and reminded himself that he had been working on his defence for the past month, in fact, he had worked on it so hard, he now believed that it was an absolute defence.

He grinned as he stood opposite Tamara. The normally hyper teenager was now quiet, and that unnerved him a little. Even during the month they were supposed to train, the Bladebreakers had heard her shouting and yelling in the castle grounds. Seeing her this quiet made him uneasy.

He clutched Draciel in his hand and managed to smile, "May the best blader win!"

Tamara looked at him, startled, before she grinned and help up Amethyst, "To the best."

The bottom of the dish clicked open and the stadium that rose from it was one that Max had never seen before. It looked like a jungle, thick trees, mist, and there was even a waterfall in the centre of the slopes. It reminded him of that island in Jurassic Park, the one with the very steep mountains and watering hole where all the dinosaurs were drinking.

Max attached Draciel to his launcher and stood at the ready. At least there was some water, he didn't know what kind of element Tamara used, but at least he could use the water to his advantage.

Tamara merely held up her blade and made the same pose that she had when she had fought Kai. She seemed completely at ease by this dish, and even managed to grin at him.

"3… 2… 1…" the others began to chant, while Davi watched on with a knowing smirk.

"LET IT RIP!"

Max hesitated a second as Tamara appeared to throw her blade using just her arms, and Draciel shot out into the stadium. Tamara grinned at him, "GOTCHA!"

"Go get him Tammy!" Rena shouted at her friend.

"What?" Max was given a split second to wander what was going on before Tamara's beyblade landed on top of his and sent him spinning towards the waterfall. He grinned though, when Draciel hit the water. Didn't she know that water was Draciel's strong point?

Draciel continued to spin underwater, and Tamara frowned when the beyblade didn't come back up. She looked up and saw the smile on Max's face and mentally slapped herself for not remembering that his bit-beast was a turtle.

"You stupid fool!" Raine shouted out. "His bit-beast is a goddamned TURTLE!"

"I know," Tamara yelled back and tried to figure out a way to get him out of the water before he could attack her.

"Max, she's in the trees!" Ray called down.

Max frowned at the trees, he was sure he had caught a glimpse of red there, but wasn't too sure. He wasn't even sure if the trees were real, or if anything else in the dish was, when the red beyblade came charging towards the water. The move was sudden, and Max frowned at the odd decision. He had thought that what Kenny had told him was right, she didn't use straight on attacks because her blade wasn't strong enough.

"Try and get her in the water, Draciel!" Max shouted at his beyblade, which hurried to obey.

"Tamara what the hell are you doing?" Lea shouted. "A head on attack could destroy your blade!"

Tamara grinned though, as Amethyst swerved off and into the forest again as Max's blade shot out the water.

"Bit late, Maxie," she called, and held up her hands in front of her.

Max frowned at her, wandering what she was doing, before he noticed that the arena around them seemed to disappear. He couldn't hear the others shouting at them, well, he couldn't hear anything at all. He glanced up at her grinning face and realised that she had created the mist so that there would be no more distractions. He grinned back at her, now he could really concentrate on his blade.

He was a sitting duck right there, but where the hell was she? His answer appeared before him when he spotted Amethyst on top of the waterfall ready to fall right on his beyblade.

"Draciel! Get back in the water!" Max yelled urgently at his blade.

"Amethyst! Fox Fire right now!" Tamara commanded. Amethyst appeared out of the seal and shot jets of flames at Max's bit-beast before Draciel could get back into the safety of the water. Tamara grinned and decided to take a risk, "Tail Punch him Amethyst!"

"What the…" Max wandered before the fox curled up and began to roll over and over again until it became a ball of fire. Max realised what it was going to do and yelled at Draciel. "Draciel! Metal Ball Defence, now!"

"Oh shit," Tamara said as Amethyst connected with the turtle and was thrown back into the forest of trees. The fox spun round and managed to land on its feet before a wave of water rose up above it. The Metal Ball defence was one of Max's more powerful defence which threw its opponents attack right back at it and caused twice as much damage. Seeing the water rising up from the turtle's power, though, she knew that she had to defend and yelled, "Amethyst! Fox Dance!"

Max grinned as Amethyst seemed to panic and the water washed over it. This was the same thing she had done to Kai, wasn't it? So what was the fox doing? What kind of attack was it? All the fox was doing was spinning round in a circle. Was this the same attack she had used on Kai? Or was it maybe…

"Fox Fire!"

Tamara's yell caused the fox to stop and look up before releasing a jet of flame at the tower of water.

"Aqua Shield!" Max yelled, hoping he wasn't too late.

"Amethyst! Tail Punch him!"

The fox leapt up at the water, still shooting jets of flames at it, and curled into a ball. It slammed into the water with all nine tails and managed to break through to Draciel behind it. Grinning, the fox shot flames at the turtle before leaping over it and onto the top of the waterfall. The turtle fell onto its back in the water and tried to get back onto its side but Max's blade had become unstable and had lost its balance. It stopped in the water before slowly sinking to the bottom.

"What the…? How could you have beaten me?" Max asked as Tamara called her beyblade back to her.

"Easily," she shrugged and walked off, leaving Max behind her wandering exactly how he lost. Carefully, he reached into the dish and pulled out his blade before he frowned up at Tamara's retreating back.

"Hey," he called to her. She turned to frown at him, "That was fun! Let's do it again sometime!"

"Sure!" Tamara grinned at him as the mist cleared around them.

"Who won?" Tyson called down to them, as Max headed back up to his friends.

"Well, I lost," Max told him as he sat down.

"How could you have lost?" Kenny asked, confused.

"I don't know," Max replied, "Somehow, she managed to break through my defence and attacked me."

"But you were working on your defence every second you had!" Tyson joined in. "Even I couldn't get through it!"

"Hey guys," Ray said. The others turned to look at him and he pointed at the board.

"Looks like you're up next, Kai," Tyson said, as he glanced over his shoulder where Kai was sitting. At least, Kai was sitting behind Tyson during Max's match, but he was now down next to the stadium, waiting for his opponent to be chosen.

"Good luck, Kai!" Ray yelled down.

Kai just smirked. He knew that he would win this next battle. There was no way that he couldn't. He had done as Davi had suggested and worked on his defence like Max had. He glanced up at the other teenager and found her smirking down at him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as the other player was chosen.

"Why me?" Raine moaned and dropped her head onto her hands. "Why do I have to go up against Kai?"

"Oh, quit moaning Raine," Tamara said, slapping her friend on the back. Raine struggled for a grip on the railing as Tamara nearly pushed her over the edge. "He's dead easy to beat," Tamara continued, oblivious to Raine's problem. Once again, she slapped her friend on the back, "So go get him!"

Raine screamed in rage as she fell to the ground. "Tamara, I am gonna kill you!"

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Tamara asked as she turned to look at Rena. Rena just shrugged in reply. "I hope so, Kai looks pretty confident, doesn't he?"

"Yeah…" Lea said, trying to see the blade that Kai held in his hand. From what she could see, it looked like he had made some modifications, but what exactly, she couldn't figure out.

Raine grinned at Kai standing across her as she finally made her way to the platform. Tamara was gonna be so dead after this fight was over. She was gonna beat the hell out of Kai before hunting Tamara down and completely kicking the crap out of her. Already, those anger management classes were starting to leak out of her mind. All of a sudden, she couldn't remember any of the control techniques that she had been taught and cackled evilly as she fixed Sawyer to her launcher.

Kai stood uneasily, wandering what the hell the girl was laughing at, when he saw the evil glint in her eye. Hadn't someone mentioned something about anger management? He could vaguely remember it being said somewhere.

"Raine is so gonna kick your ass, Kai!" Tamara yelled while standing on top of the railing. "I pissed her off real good!"

Kai frowned up at the hyper teenager. Hadn't that match with Max tired her out at all? She began to jump up and down, clapping her hands together in anticipation.

He guessed not.

He looked over at Raine as he pulled out his launcher and clicked Dranzer into place. Raine's bit-beast was a wolf, so… what would her attacks be like? He knew that she had a little defence, but it didn't seem to be too powerful. That would have to be it then, completely destroy her defence and leave her open.

The Jurassic dish had disappeared, and another dish appeared in its place. This dish resembled a motorcycle mud track that had been skilfully crafted into a beystadium. There were several jumps and bridges at different places around the track, as well as what looked like a tunnel system leading underneath it. There was also a pit of mud at the very bottom of the track, and Kai was sure that if he looked hard enough, he could see broken beyblade parts scattered all over the mud.

"3… 2… 1…" the others began to chant.

Both Kai and Raine tensed as they waited for the words before they both launched at the same time.

"LET IT RIP!"

Tbc…


	14. A Howling Time

AN- Okay, here's another chappie for my wonderful friends. And Rena, to answer your plea, I have actually changed your attacks to something else, but you're kinda not in this chapter so no need to worry about it… yet. Raine, you kinda guessed right about what's going to happen next, but I beg you, please don't kill Tammy for it. Or me for that matter. Anyways, on with the story. And guys, don't forget to review. I write faster when I get reviews.

EDIT- I changed Raine's attacks a little in this chapter.

Disclaimer- may as well write one this time. Not. Go to chapter one if you want a full disclaimer.

**Snow Secrets**

**A Howling Time**

They had been going at it for hours.

At least, it felt like hours to Kai. He had been confident about winning at first, but Raine didn't have as weak a defence as he had first thought. She had tried attacking him when the match began, but stopped after failing several times. He was sure he had seen her glance up at Davi suspiciously after she realised that he had a very good defence. He had grinned over at her. She had flipped him the finger in reply.

Since then, she had gone on the extreme defensive, dodging and blocking most of his attacks. She had led him on a merry race around the track, often skidding when she got near Kai, causing mud to spray up onto him. He had of course, retaliated and both of them were now practically covered in the mud, as were their beyblades. It was completely impossible to tell Dranzer from Sawyer as both raced around the muddy track trying to catch the other.

In the back of his mind, Kai wandered how he could defeat her. She had the speed and endurance to match his, but her attacks couldn't penetrate his defence. That had resulted in her going on the defensive and she was waiting for him to attack her. The chances that she would try and attack him now were practically zero, as was the possibility of her leaving herself open.

Kai watched as the blades raced around the track opposite each other. Dranzer couldn't catch up to her speed since they were both equal, and she didn't seem too keen on getting anywhere near him for now. She seemed to be trying to wear him out, which gave him an idea.

"Dranzer, Fire Arrow attack!"

Dranzer skidded into the tunnel and emerged on the other side next to Sawyer. The phoenix emerged once the blade had cleared the tunnel and with a screech, it attempted to tackle the wolf. Raine didn't bother to call out her bit-beast, since Sawyer only skidded out of the way.

"Sawyer! Arctic Howl!" Raine shouted at the wolf as Dranzer hit the muddy wall.

A high pitched howl began to echo around the stadium. Kai could only watch as Raine's blade sped up, spinning round the track faster and faster until all he could see was a blur.

He tried to attack her, but Dranzer lost its balance and started to spin out of control before it crashed into the wall. Kai tried to attack Sawyer a few more times before he realised it was hopeless. Every time he would get near the wolf, Dranzer would spin out of control and crash into something, typically the wall.

After a few minutes, the howl was starting to hurt Kai's ears and he tried to figure out a way to defeat her. This was something he wasn't expecting.

Far away, he could hear his team-mates shouting something at him, but he couldn't make out their words. He fell to his knees, his vision started to blur and something warm trickled down the side of his neck. When he touched his skin, he pulled his hand away and saw blood coating his fingers. How the heck was he supposed to win now? At this rate, he would be unconscious pretty soon.

Davi's gaze flickered between Kai and Raine as the howling continued. It irritated her slightly, but years of having to tune out loud noises had come in handy and she simply filtered it out and concentrated on the match. Kai was now on his knees while Raine stood tall, grinning down at him. Kai's team-mates were yelling at him to get up, but she knew it was no use. Very few blades had managed to survive the Arctic Howl, her own being one of them. The only thing that could help Kai now was if Raine in some way got distracted and lost control of Sawyer. But that wasn't likely to—

"Oi! Raine! You keep this up and you'll turn into your Ma!"

Tamara's voice echoed around the stadium, almost drowning out the howl. Obviously, the howling was getting on her nerves too. Well, either that, Davi thought, or this match was taking too damn long for her liking.

"What?" Raine said, confused as she looked around. "My Ma? Where?"

Kai managed to see an opening and took his chance. Raine's distraction had meant that Sawyer was now loose and open to attack. He timed when the blade would get near Dranzer and yelled, "Dranzer! Fire Arrow!"

Sawyer went soaring out of the stadium and right past Raine's head. Her eyes turned to look at it as it hit the front of the box where the other Sirens were and fell to the floor.

There was silence for several minutes. Tamara wisely ducked behind the railing.

"What the…?" Raine wandered, before turning back to Kai. He was standing with a smug look on his face and she knew that she had lost. And it was all thanks to Tamara. Oh, that girl was gonna get it. Slowly, she turned to glare up at her team-mates, searching for her 'friend'. The others backed away as slowly as they could without Raine noticing.

Kai continued to smirk and called Dranzer back to him. He had won this battle, although he owed Tamara a thank you for helping him out. He wasn't sure if he would be able to though, since Raine looked like she was in a killing mood. He guessed she really did have anger management issues and began to walk off. Raine's voice stopped him.

"I demand a rematch!" She bellowed, making everyone cover their ears. "You cheated!"

Kai continued to smirk back at her over his shoulder. "Actually, you got distracted, and I took advantage of it."

Rena dragged Lea down the steps to stop Raine from launching herself at Kai in an attempt to kill him.

Kai just chuckled as the other girls held Raine back and joined the other Bladebreakers in their box.

Davi stood up and addressed the two teams. "We'll be having a break to get something to eat and stretch our legs. The next battle will be had in an hour's time. I must ask you not to leave this arena. Food will be brought to you shortly."

With that, she turned and left through another exit at the back of her box.

"They're strong," Tyson said from his seat next to Kenny. "They're really strong."

"Yeah," Max agreed, leaning against the railing. "If Tamara hadn't shouted out like that, then Raine would have beaten Kai. And we'd probably have automatically lost."

"I managed to get a signal during that battle," Kenny said, interrupting the others as he tapped away on his computer. "These girls are not an official team. They are the strongest members of their teams. From what I can gather, Tamara is a member of the Fox Assassins, a group of bladers who all have fox bit-beasts and can harness the element of fire. Tamara's bit beast is Amethyst, an ancient fox spirit that used to rule over South America almost ten thousand years ago, it's said to be some kind of demon but the information is a little fuzzy on that."

Ellie appeared baring a tray full of food. Everyone looked relieved to see her, and thanked her as she left it on one of the chairs before helping themselves to sandwiches and drinks of juice.

"Raine and Paine are both from the same team," Kenny continued, still tapping away. "I'm not quite sure what they're called, the information I got on them was quite fractured and I had to rebuild most of the files. But from what I can gather, they both have an extremely powerful attack that has wiped out most of their opponents can almost destroy both blade and blader."

Kenny paused to look at Kai, who was frowning down at his blade, "You're lucky to have come out of that battle with your blade in tact," he said, before going back to his computer.

"I can't get much more info than that," he said with a sigh of defeat then looked specifically at Tyson and Ray. "So whoever goes up against Paine, you'll have to be extremely careful and stick to defensive moves as much as you can."

"What about Rena?" Ray asked, frowning over Kenny's shoulder.

"Rena…" Kenny muttered, tapping away again. "She has a tiger bit beast and specializes in darkness attacks. That's all I have right now, but I'll keep checking."

"Thanks, Chief," Ray said and turned to look across at Rena. The poor girl was stuck between a very pissed off Raine and a hyper Tamara, while Lea stayed as far away as possible. In fact, Lea was drinking out of a bottle that looked suspiciously like a bottle of whiskey. Ray frowned then, where was the boy, Paine?

His answer came when a hand appeared on Rena's shoulder and the boy sat up behind them, took one look at the two arguing girls and moved down to sit behind Lea. In return, the blond offered her whiskey to him.

X

Rena wandered whether she should just let Raine and Tamara tear each other to shreds or not. Almost an hour of listening to them bitch about each other was starting to grate on her nerves, and she needed to keep those as in tact as possible for her match.

"You are so dead, bitch," Raine muttered under her breath, yet it was still loud enough for both her and Tammy to hear. Rena concluded she did it on purpose and definitely needed to go back to anger management.

"At least I managed to beat one of them," Tamara replied, sticking her tongue out childishly.

"I would have beaten him if you hadn't--" Raine said, turning to look at Tamara

"No you wouldn't."

"Yes, I would," Raine growled, hands already curling into fists. Rena wandered whether she should move out of the way or not.

"Not."

"Yes."

"Not."

"Yes."

"What are we talking about?" Tamara asked, cocking her head to one side.

This time, Rena did move as Raine launched herself at Tamara and knocked both girls onto the floor. Lea sat a few seats down, watching them with a frown on her face. Paine had lay down in the row behind her. He had claimed he hadn't got enough sleep recently and was snoring gently in the seat behind her.

Rena grinned nervously as she approached her friend. "It's almost time, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" Lea sighed, looking across at the boys. Rena could already smell the alcohol on her friends breath.

"Wander who I'll be going against," Rena said, dropping down beside her friend.

"Probably Tyson," Lea replied, then looked over at Tamara and Raine. "Should we leave them like that?"

"Probably not," Rena said with a sigh. She stood up and walked over to them.

A moment later, she returned, leaving Tamara and Raine dazedly staring up at the ceiling behind her.

Davi returned then and called for silence.

"Are we ready for the next match?" she asked, glancing at the Sirens, then at the Bladebreakers. All of whom nodded in agreement. "Then let's begin."

Rena's heart pounded in her chest as her name appeared on the screen. Relief coursed through her now that she didn't have to wait long. But the relief was short lived when she saw who she was up against.

Ray Kon.

Tbc…


	15. The Cats Dance Around The Crow

AN- I am sorry if this chapter appears to move a little fast, but I want to get it out tonight and start the next one tomorrow. My friends have pretty much guessed what's going to happen anyway. Apologies for any OOCness as usual. To me, Ray is very much out of it, and yep, there's some Ray/Rena in this. Again, apologies for spelling, grammar, etc… I was rushing through it after all. Other than that, enjoy and don't forget to review. And yeah, crap title but I couldn't think of anything better.

Disclaimer- See chapter one.

EDIT- I have had to redo Rena and Ray's match since Rena told me her actual attacks. It still has the same crap ending, but the first match is different. I also changed the breaks in the story to line breaks, because QuikEdit is being annoying. Hope to have the next chapter out over the next few days.

**Snow Secrets**

**The Cats Dance Around The Crow**

Ray's feeling of dread returned when his name appeared on the screen beneath Rena's. He had had a sneaking feeling that he would have to fight her, but he had still hoped that he wouldn't. What would he do now? What could he do now? Could he maybe forfeit?

"Go get her, Ray," Tyson said, shoving his fist into the air.

Guess he couldn't forfeit. With a sigh, Ray began to descend the steps, but Kenny's shout stopped him.

"Ray, wait a sec," Kenny muttered, hurrying down the steps to his friend. Ray stopped and listened to what Kenny had to say: "Rena is a very powerful opponent who usually uses whatever camouflage she can to hide herself, a little like Tamara, but she has a lot of endurance and can quite easily outlast you. So, you'll need to take her down as quickly as possible in order to beat her, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, Chief," Ray answered, before continuing to the bottom.

He heard Kenny's voice behind him telling him something else, but ignored it and concentrated on the beystadium.

This was not something he wanted to do.

* * *

On the other side of the arena, Rena was wandering whether to try and run or not. 

Tamara made her choice for her.

"You can beat him, Rena!" the hyper girl shouted, bouncing up and down like usual.

Rena managed a small smile at Tamara before she glanced at Lea. "Anything?"

"Ray's got a good attack," Lea said, looking dazedly into the glass of red wine in her hand. The matches had been pretty boring to her, but she had remembered where she had stashed her wine in the arena and had opened several bottles since the first match. She yawned before remembering what she had wanted to tell Rena. "You'll probably have to try and outlast him. Wear him down as much as you can before attacking. Keep on the defensive, and for God's sake, be careful. Other than that, good luck."

"Thanks," Rena muttered, and headed down the steps.

"You'll be able to beat him!" Raine yelled, hands cupped around her mouth to amplify the sound. "Just put your little crush behind you and go kick the crap out of him!"

Rena blushed at this and Tamara started laughing uncontrollably.

Face bright red, Rena turned to glare at her companions, fully intent on embarrassing them both by yelling who they had crushes on. Both smiled down innocently, their earlier fight completely forgotten as they enjoyed annoying their team mate.

"I am going to kill you," Rena growled at them. She made a slashing motion across her neck when they both didn't appear to have heard her. She knew that they had as she continued and reached the bottom of the steps and she would so kill them once she was done.

When she reached the platform, she smiled shyly over at Ray. She still hadn't forgotten what they had done in his room that night. It had never been far from her mind, and only caused her blush to deepen as the memory surfaced again.

Ray grinned back at her, his thoughts also on that night. It seemed so long ago, and yet, he could remember it like it was crystal clear in his mind.

"Rena," he called across to her, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Do your best."

She nodded after a second, a slight smile crossing her face. "I will."

Ray attached Driger to his launcher and got into position. Rena pulled up the sleeve of her shirt and clicked her beyblade onto it. She pulled her arm back, and pivoted on her heel so that her side was to Ray and her beyblade was on the side furthest away from him.

He smiled at her as the dish began to rise. Rena couldn't suppress her grin as she recognised this particular arena. Tammy and her had had many particular disagreements over how to fight in this stadium.

There was a main island in the centre of it, with several smaller ones grouped around it. The rest of the dish was completely covered in water, with it almost coming up to the edge. The main island was the only one that had anything that resembled stable land, with a small mountain peak/chateau rising up from the middle of it, surrounded by sand. The chateau itself was barely bigger than the largest island, but it was a good vantage point if you wanted to drop down right onto your opponent. The sand, naturally, was like the soft sand found above the tide line – shifting and unpredictable, and not a good ground to use unless you were experienced in it.

The others began to chant as the two bladers got ready. "3…2…1…"

"Let it rip!" Ray shouted as he launched Driger towards the main island. He would need to stay out of the water if he was going to win this match, and from Rena's grinning face, he realised that water probably was her element.

Rena spun on her heel, throwing her body behind her arm as she threw Thalia into the stadium. She hoped that she had figured out the angle and power she needed. Thalia didn't have the grip needed to spin on sand, and if she fell into the water… Well, it was common knowledge most cats weren't keen on getting wet, and Thalia was no exception.

Both blades landed at the same time and Ray's toppled slightly, not accustomed to the unstable sandy ground. He sighed in relief though when Driger didn't go in the water, and headed round the chateau instead. He couldn't see Rena's blade anywhere, though, until he noticed something on top of the chateau. It was Thalia.

Ray cursed silently, there was no way he could get up those steep cliffs, and unless he could in some way get Rena's blade to come back down… he was stuck trying to outlast her. He watched as her blade spun on the spot and Rena seemed to relax slightly at that, and he remembered what the Chief had told him.

"Driger! Attack!"

Rena frowned as Driger slammed into the cliff wall, causing a slight crack to appear in the rock. What the heck was he trying to do?

"Driger!" Ray yelled, "Tiger Claw Attack!"

The beyblade slammed into the rock face once more, and spun out of the way as a chunk fell from the cliff. Ray grinned a little, but knew that he still had a way to go before he could knock enough of it down.

Rena seemed to realise what he was doing, and as Driger headed for the rock face again, she yelled to Thalia.

"Thalia, counter with Black Mist!"

Ray frowned across at her, and caught her eye as she glanced up at him. When he looked back down at the dish, he couldn't see a thing. A mist had spread over the islands and water, hiding everything from view and covering the dish in darkness. He searched for any sign of Driger, but couldn't see his beyblade anywhere.

"Thalia!" Rena shouted.

Somewhere in the mist, Ray heard the unmistakable sound of two beyblades clashing together.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

Rena froze as Lea's voice echoed out across the stadium.

"I SODDIN' TOLD YOU TO KEEP TO DEFENSE!"

Rena's hands curled into fists and she whirled around to face her friend. Lea didn't seemed to realise that she was half hanging over the railing, with a half full bottle of wine in one hand.

"RAY'S ATTACK WILL DESTROY---!"

"I know!" Rena yelled back.

"Well----!" Tamara's hand clamped over Lea's mouth. Raine wisely removed the alcohol from the drink addict's hands.

Fuming, Rena turned back to the dish. "Thalia! Darkness Claw Attack!"

This time, Ray not only heard the blades clashing, he saw Driger fly out of the middle of the stadium, and stop about ten feet in the air before the blade started to fall back down again. A purple beyblade shot out of the mist behind it, and Ray knew that Rena would attempt to throw Driger out of the stadium.

"Driger! Tiger Claw!" Ray yelled in defence.

Somehow, Thalia managed to move out of the way as Driger appeared and fell towards the other blade. Rena grinned across at Ray.

"One of Thalia's specialities," the girl chose to explain. "She can move out of the way whenever anyone attacks her."

Ray cursed silently as Driger disappeared back into his blade and fell back into the mist. Specialities? His mind was reeling. What the hell did she mean? He glanced up and found her once again grinning at her. He almost slapped himself when he figured it out. Cats were renowned jumpers, particularly the leopard, and could quite often perform spectacular leaps. Had Rena figured out a way to apply that to beyblading?

The sound of the two beyblades clashing brought Ray out of his thoughts once more and Ray frowned down at the dish. Could he maybe do a similar thing? Cats weren't only renowned for jumping, but also…

"Driger! Use your nose and sniff her out!" Ray yelled to his missing blade.

The smile on Rena's face faltered as a bright light appeared through the mist, swiftly heading towards her side of the dish. She knew without doubt that that light was Ray's beyblade, and he was headed straight for Thalia. He would've figured it out eventually, she knew that, and that memory was still fresh in her mind. In a second, she made up her mind.

"Thalia! Darkness Claw!"

"Driger! Tiger Claw!"

Both voices rang out at the same time, and the two bladers had to take a step back from the winds that threatened to throw them off of their feet.

The mist kept swirling even as Thalia flew from the stadium and into Rena's hands. Rena managed to catch her blade and stared up at Ray in awe. Hardly anyone had managed to get through the mist before. At least, no one had ever survived in one piece. Thalia usually ripped anyone to shreds when they entered her realm.

Rena stood, impressed by Ray's skill and strength and managed to grin, even if she had lost this fight.

A few moments later Driger stopped spinning and tumbled down the side of the chateau. Carefully, Ray reached in and retrieved his blade.

Grinning at Rena, he said, "That was a good match."

She managed to smile back, although she was forcing it, "Yeah, I guess it was."

She began to walk away then, and the mist completely disappeared. Ray made a mental note to talk to her later as he turned and rejoined his friends.

Shivering from the slightly cold air, Tyson managed to grin and congratulate him on beating Rena. "Good work, man, that was pretty close."

"Tyson," Kenny said, dragging Tyson off to explain what he should do to win. "You can't just attack him…"

Ray tuned out the rest of their conversation and looked over at Rena. She was chewing the ends of a chunk of her hair and staring off into space. She looked like she had fallen into a deep depression. Had beating her really done this to her? He glanced over at Davi, who was also frowning in Rena's direction.

"I'll be back in a minute," he said to Kai, before heading round to Davi. Kai looked over at Rena and shook his head, a knowing smirk appeared on his face.

"Will she be okay?" Ray asked once he reached Davi.

"She'll be fine," Davi replied, leaning forward in her chair. She glanced sideways at Ray, "You can go and talk to her if you want, but not for long."

"Thanks," Ray said to her. He walked past and headed round to the Sirens. Lea moved away from Rena, taking Thalia with her to assess the damage. "Hey," Ray said gently, sitting down next to Rena.

"Hey," Rena replied, looking down at her nails.

"That was a good match," Ray said, not really knowing what else to say. "We should battle again sometime."

Raine had been eavesdropping on their little conversation and burst out screaming. "WHAT? SHE GETS AN OFFER TO REMATCH AND ALL I GET IS----MMPH!"

Tamara's hand slapped down on Raine's mouth and she swiftly dragged the blue-haired girl away.

Rena managed to smile and said, "Yeah, that'll be nice."

"Good," Ray said, and glanced over at the others. "I'd er… better get going now."

"Thanks," Rena said and watched him leave with a sad look on her face.

"You know," Lea said as he rejoined the other boys, "You shoulda kissed him."

"And you should leave other people's business alone."

* * *

Five minutes later, Tyson whooped and laughed when his name appeared on the screen next to Paine's. He had been itching for a battle all day and from what he'd seen earlier, he knew that this team was one of the most powerful teams that he would ever likely meet. He couldn't wait to see what kind of attacks that Paine would use. 

He grinned across at his opponent when he stepped up onto the platform. The island dish was gone, and the plain one sat between them. Paine didn't smile back. In fact, he looked like he needed to catch up on his sleep rather than beybattle right now.

"Good luck, eh?" Tyson tried, but Paine only looked up at the others behind him.

Kai froze when he saw the anger in Paine's eyes. And those eyes were directed straight towards him. That same feeling washed over him. He knew those eyes from somewhere… Somewhere far back in his memory, but couldn't place them at all.

Paine didn't seem in the least interested in Tyson, and when Tyson turned round to see who the other boy was staring at, he saw Kai glaring down at them both.

"Figures," Tyson muttered under his breath and turned back to Paine.

The dish appeared between them, and Tyson silently wandered what Paine would do. Attack? Defend? Or sit it out? Silently, he hoped that Paine would forfeit this match. From what the Chief had said, he was quite a formidable opponent and not one that was easily defeated, despite the fact that he seemed to be pretty sleepy.

Sitting in the bottom of the dish was an old ship that looked like it had just been dug up out of the bottom of the sea. There was water around the bottom coming to about halfway up the dish and the ship itself looked like it was about to collapse any second now.

Sighing, Paine held up his blade, clicked it to his launcher, turned and held it almost as low as his shins. Tyson stood at the ready, wandering what kind of bit-beast the other boy had.

"3… 2….1… Let it rip!" the others shouted.

Both boys launched their blades, with Paine pulling his arms up and his blade went soaring in an arc over the dish. For a split second, Tyson thought that it was going to miss the dish and hit him before the beyblade fell and landed on the dish right in front of him.

"Dragoon!" Tyson yelled, pointing at Paine's blade, "Attack!"

Paine simply grinned and his beyblade jumped out of Dragoon's way and onto the pirate ship.

"You're not getting away!" Tyson yelled, and Dragoon followed Paine's beyblade up onto the unsteady ship.

Paine, however, seemed to have other ideas, and rubbed his eye sleepily as Tyson once again attempted to bash into his beyblade. The ship rattled beneath the two blades as Dragoon almost hit the edge of the deck, while Paine's simply stood spinning on the spot. Tyson took a step back, wandering what had happened, when he noticed that Paine seemed to be tired of playing games.

"Blake!" Paine yelled, and a crow bit-beast appeared over his beyblade. "Get him!"

The crow, Blake, stared down at Tyson with dark red eyes, and the teen took a step back at the malicious look in them.

"What---?"

Tyson couldn't finish his question.

Everything happened so fast he didn't have the time.

A black hole began to build over Paine's beyblade.

Paine started to laugh maniacally.

Something white flashed in the centre of the whole room.

And Tyson felt himself falling into darkness.

Tbc…


	16. Waiting Inbetween

AN- So, a week later and another chapter. I'm gonna be wrapping this story up in a couple of chapters time so hopefully the next one will be up soon. I've already started typing it up so it shouldn't be a long wait. Enjoy and review.

Disclaimer- Maybe I should do one this time. It's been a while since I have done one so… here goes nothing. Tyson, Kai, Kenny, Ray and Max do not belong to me. Tamara, Rena, Lea, Paine and Raine belong to my friends and Davi belongs to me.

**Snow Secrets**

**Waiting In-between**

Davi had been the first to move. As soon as she had seen the black hole start to form, she realised that Paine was about to unleash one of his most powerful attacks and Tyson probably wouldn't survive if he got hit head on.

"Kayite!" she yelled as she stood.

A black bear-like dog appeared on the rail in front of her and leapt down to stop the blast. It only just managed to get there in time. Growling, the dog tackled Tyson to the ground, and took the hit completely. Davi leapt down into the arena and ran over to the fallen teenager.

"Shadow Block!" she commanded the dog, which turned and snarled at Paine. She kneeled down next to Tyson to assess his wounds. Thankfully, Kayite had taken most of the damage, but Tyson had still been knocked out by the force behind the blow. Out the corner of her eye, she noticed Lea hurrying down the steps and stood to face Paine next to the dog.

Paine had stopped laughing now, and was now glaring at Davi. Davi glared right back. After a moment, though, Paine turned and walked off, taking his beyblade with him.

Lea's breath smelt of alcohol, but she seemed to be clear-headed as she took in Tyson's wounds. Davi watched as Paine stormed up the steps and out of the arena. She sighed in annoyance, knowing that she would have to talk to him later about this.

"He'll be fine," Lea said from behind Davi.

Davi breathed a sigh of relief and turned to her bit beast. The dog nodded and disappeared from sight as the rest of the Bladebreakers joined their fallen friend.

"What just happened?" Ray demanded, whirling on Davi. He'd seen the darkness headed straight for a frozen Tyson and then Tyson was lying on the floor and Paine had disappeared.

Davi picked up Tyson's shattered beyblade and handed it to Kenny. "Because of my interference, Tyson has had to forfeit this match," she told them and turned away. "I'll deal with Paine."

"What happened exactly?" Kai asked her.

She looked up at the Sirens and said, "Ask the girls. They'll explain it better. In the meantime, we'll take a break until Tyson has fully recovered."

"Wait up!" Max said, "Why will Tyson have to forfeit?"

"Because I helped him."

The boys watched as Davi headed up the steps and spoke to Raine. Rena and Tammy rushed down the steps and joined the others. Wordlessly, Lea gently picked Tyson up and started back up the steps. The boys watched her go.

"What really happened?" Ray asked Rena once she stood next to him. She shrugged.

"That black hole is one of Paine's ultimate attacks," she told him, slightly breathless. "He must have either wanted to match over really quickly or he wanted to get through to the next round. Those are the only reasons I can think of him using it."

"What do you mean, ultimate attack?" Max asked, stepping closer to her.

"Some beybladers have attacks that are so powerful that they have to be banned from using them," Tammy explained, watching the underwater dish disappear and the plain one take its place with a far away look on her face. "Kezza has had to be banned from using hers because it essentially drives her opponent insane. Many have ended up in institutes because of her."

"Who's Kezza?" Max asked, curious.

"The leader of my team, the Fox Assassins," Tammy told him, still watching the dish.

"Oh."

"So," Rena said in an attempt to dispel the dark atmosphere that had settled over the group. "What do you want to do now?"

"Why did he do that?" Kai asked. Rena frowned at him.

"Why did who do what?"

"Why did Paine use that attack if it's banned?" Kai clarified.

"Because he wanted to get the match over with," Raine said as she came down the steps and joined the others. "He didn't get much sleep last night and used the easiest attack he could."

"That's his easy attack?" Max asked, sceptically.

Raine nodded. "Yep."

"Wow…"

"Where did Davi go?" Kai asked, gaze roaming the arena, searching for their host.

"To talk to Paine," Raine answered. "Now I don't know about you guys, but it's kinda cold in here, and I'm getting hungry."

"Yeah, me too!" Tamara bounced up and down, back to her usual self. "Can we go to the kitchen now?"

xxxxx

Snow was once again falling outside. Paine watched it from the couch in the library. The domed window overhead had been completely clear when he'd first walked in and now it was a stormy grey as the light struggled to get through the thick layer of snow that had settled on the glass.

The door opened. Paine didn't turn to look. He already knew who it was.

"Did you honestly have to do that?" Davi asked as she took up her favourite seat by the fire.

"I just want to fight him, no one else," Paine answered, eyes still on the ceiling. "Now leave me alone."

"Answer my question first."

He rolled his eyes. He was not in the mood to deal with her mind games. "Why don't you go?"

She sighed and leaned back in the chair for a moment. There were days when she wandered whether she should even bother with him. She picked a book off the shelf and started reading.

He rolled onto his side and attempted to catch up on his sleep.

The only sound in the room was the soft crackle of the fire.

Unfortunately, the silence didn't last for long.

xxxxx

The plan formed in Tamara's mind as soon as she reached the kitchen. A few minutes before, as the small group was walking along the corridor, she had pulled Max to the side and asked if he liked ice poles. He had flushed bright red at the question and she had rolled her eyes and dragged him along without bothering to explain to him what she had meant. As soon as they entered the familiar room, she tugged him over to the cupboards and began rummaging around until she found the one she was looking for. The others sat around the table in silence, wandering why they could barely remember what had happened.

"What are you…?" Max trailed off as Tamara crawled inside the cupboard and motioned for Max to follow.

Max glanced over at the others, Ray frowned over at him for a second before he looked over at Rena. Max glanced between them and looked away, down at the cupboard where Tamara was hiding. He crouched down and peered inside. The back of the cupboard had been slipped to one side and Tamara was grinning out at him from a small hidden alcove in the wall.

Rena glanced over at the kitchen as Max's feet disappeared inside and sighed. The last thing anyone needed was what she had a feeling Tamara and Max were going to do. The purple-haired girl sighed and dropped her head onto the table. Everyone, with the exception of Tyson, Kenny and Lea, was in the kitchen, and no one seemed in any mood to talk.

She knew herself how deadly Paine's attack was, and what kind of damage it could do to his opponent. But why had he used it…?

"I'm going to train."

Kai's statement was accompanied by footsteps and then the scraping of stone as he opened the secret passageway.

"I'll join you," Ray said, rising from the table.

Rena didn't look up as the two disappeared, but she felt Ray's gaze on her before he left.

Already, there was a squeal of delight from the cupboards. They were hyper already. Rena groaned and her head fell back onto the table, begging whoever would listen that the day would end as quickly as possible.

xxxxx

Kai burst into the library, startling the two occupants, who didn't bother to move as he yelled at them.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO TYSON!"

Paine yawned and rolled over, still pretending to be asleep. Davi set her book to one side, steepled her fingers together and watched the angry Russian with what could have been curiosity in her eyes. Training with Ray had not helped Kai's anger, and he had given up and gone searching for Paine within ten minutes to try and find out what happened in the arena.

"YOU NEARLY KILLED HIM!"

Kai was already out of breath, and his throat was killing him. He glared at Paine, and then at Davi, who matched his glare with ease. She didn't blink once. He turned away and resumed his rant at Paine.

"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU DID!"

Davi kept watching him, and Paine pretended to sleep, although he had a massive headache that was rapidly becoming a damned migraine.

"ANSWER ME!"

Kai continued to yell until his voice was hoarse and barely above a whisper.

Davi walked over to him and guided him back to the fire. He sat down without much resistance. His earlier training session with Ray had ended only too quickly and he still needed to get Kenny to check over his blade to make sure it was alright for the next match. Davi appeared in front of him and offered him a glass of water.

"Drink," she told him. "It'll make you feel better."

He took the water from her without a word.

Paine slammed the door behind him on his way out.

xxxxx

The next day found all the teenagers split up and in completely different parts of the castle.

Davi was in the library, reading as usual.

Tamara and Max were still running around hyper from the previous night. They seemed to be the only two who could put their differences behind them and get along.

Kai was still nursing his sore throat next to the fire in the kitchen.

Kenny sat next to an immobile Tyson in what could have been called the medical room. Lea had explained to him that they only used the room if anyone was seriously injured or who needed constant attention.

The only two who were missing were Ray and Rena.

Lea was out searching for Davi when she managed to find them. There had been unusual sounds coming from a door that Lea was sure was a closet of some kind. Naturally, her curiosity had taken over and she had opened the door.

Rena had screeched in protest and had lashed out at Lea with her free hand. Her other was… occupied to say the least. Ray seemed a little too dazed to notice, but he sure felt the breeze.

Lea slammed the door and stood panting for a minute as the sounds continued. Her face turned bright red as she hurried down the corridor. Eager to get as far away from the sounds as possible and keen to get her mind back on track, she needed to report Tyson's progress to Davi. But first, she actually needed to find the other teen.

Davi glanced up as Lea entered the library and suppressed a smile at the look on Lea's face.

"Getting a little hot with all the boys?" Davi set the book on the side, careful to mark her place as Lea shot her a death glare. Almost automatically, Davi reached down to the bottle of Scotch that was hidden behind her chair and handed it over to the other girl.

"No," Lea replied, still sending the glare to Davi. She took the bottle and took a swig before continuing, a slight slur on her words. She hadn't got drunk in ages, and boy did it feel good. "But I do have good news to report. Tyson is improving, and he should wake up either tonight or tomorrow."

Davi took in what Lea had said and asked, "And the others?"

Lea's blush deepened.

"They're getting along then," Davi remarked and turned back to her book. "Let me know when Tyson wakes. I want to talk to him about something."

"Yes, Ma'am," Lea slurred and took another drink of the scotch. Davi bristled at the nickname as the other teen left.

xxxxx

True to Lea's prediction, Tyson awoke that night. Well, technically morning but it was still dark outside. Davi was the first one to be informed as she had requested. She stood next to the bed and watched as he slowly came round.

"Tyson!" she called his name softly, keen to discover if Paine had managed to damage Tyson's mind in any way, like he was prone to do on occasion.

"Wah…" Tyson struggled to speak, but couldn't. His stomach grumbled instead.

"Tyson!" Kenny woke with a start at the familiar sound. "You're awake."

A wide grin broke out on Kenny's face as Tyson started to sit up and grabbed his stomach in pain.

"What did you see?" Davi asked once she was sure Tyson was awake.

"What?" Tyson replied, still a little dazed from the drugs flowing through his system.

"What do you remember?" Davi tried again in a softer voice.

"Er…" Tyson winced as pain shot through his abdomen. "I was battling Paine, and then that darkness…" he shivered. "It came at me, then… I don't remember."

Davi breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good, it means you weren't hit."

"Hit?" Tyson repeated. "Hit by what?"

"Paine's attack," Davi replied solemnly. She turned when the others appeared in the doorway. "We'll resume the Tournament tomorrow, if Tyson's up to it."

The others fell silent as she walked out.

Tamara was the first to realise what Davi had just said.

"Yaaay!" she squealed, throwing her arms around Rena. Everyone wince at the high pitched sound. "I'm gonna be battling tomorrow."

"Yeah," Rena said, carefully patting her friend on her back.

"Hey, Tyson," Ray grinned down at Tyson. "How are you?"

"Hungry!" Tyson replied with a similar grin. "Where's the food?"

They all burst into laughter at that, except for Kai, who wandered whether he should finish his training or stay with the others. He decided on training and silently left. He'd need all the help he could get if he paired up against Paine the next day. And this was a tournament he intended to win.

Tbc…


	17. Round Two

AN- Damn, this is a long chapter. My fingers are gonna kill me later for this. Anyways, I am so close to the end of this story. I think there's only either one or two chapters to go, depending on whether I add in a few rematches or not. Ah, well, enjoy and review, you strange people who don't.

Disclaimer- See chapter 1. Can't be arsed with this thing sometimes.

**Snow Secrets**

**Round Two**

As it turned out, Tyson was absolutely fine the next day, and any sign that he had been hurt had completely disappeared. He didn't even have bruises from where he had hit the floor. In fact, he couldn't even remember hitting the floor, but he had no concussion, so Lea had concluded that Tyson had passed out from the shock of having a massive dog jump on you. He had argued that point with her half the night, but this only served to add to her conclusion that he was absolutely fine.

This was how everyone ended up back in the arena at noon the next day. Davi had decided against making it earlier since everyone had pretty much been partying the previous night and most were still sleepy. She also had a sneaking suspicion that some had hangovers, particularly Rena, who looked a little dreamy. She kept staring into the distance, glancing at Ray, blushing and staring again with a very odd smile on her face.

Davi smirked as Raine hit her head against the rail again and winced when Kenny 'accidentally' sat down on Ray, who was occupied watching Rena. Still smirking, Davi's gaze moved to the screen where two names had already appeared.

Tamara was still bouncing up and down, and only the slight bags beneath her eyes gave any sign that she hadn't slept at all the past couple of days. She had spent most of it either training or getting hyper as hell and running round with Max pulling pranks on everyone.

As she stepped up opposite Kai, she grinned over at him. He un-folded his arms from where they were hanging on his chest and smirked back at her.

"I was looking forward to this," he told her, making no move to get ready.

She grinned at him, "Oh really, and may I ask why?"

"Payback," he said, and brought up Dranzer and his launcher and clicked them together.

Tamara shrugged as she felt her beyblade slip down her arm and into her hand, which was buried inside her jacket pocket.

"Get ready," he told her, getting into position.

She merely grinned at him. "I am ready."

He raised an eyebrow and looked up at Davi. Davi stared right back and he looked down as the dish appeared. There was a light mist lying on the rocky floor of the dish, and it soon became apparent why. Every few seconds, miniature geysers would shoot heated air out and the air drifted up to both beybladers, making them uncomfortably hot.

Tamara grinned. Her bitbeast was a fire-type.

Kai grinned back. His bitbeast was a phoenix, completely at home in serious temperatures.

"3… 2… 1… LET IT RIP!"

Still grinning, Kai launched, and hoped his beyblade wouldn't land on a geyser. Tamara spun round gracefully and a beyblade went spinning into the dish on Kai's right side. He frowned at her. Was that what she had done when they had battled the last time?

She grinned at him and summoned her bitbeast. "Amethyst!"

The fox appeared in a flash of light and glared down at Kai. Kai suppressed a shudder at the look in the fox's eyes and the bitbeast turned away, looking at something in the dish. It didn't take long for Kai to figure out the canine was looking for Dranzer. The fox's gaze landed on a spot near Kai and when he peered down, he realised that Dranzer was spinning – barely visible through the mist.

"Fox Fire Attack!" Tamara yelled, and the fox opened its mouth, a line of fire already forming as it charged at Dranzer.

"Dranzer!" Kai shouted in warning, but didn't give any other command. Tamara frowned across at him as the fire his Kai's beyblade and spread into the area around it. Kai smirked back at the other teen.

"Amethyst!" Tamara shouted as she figured out what Kai was up to. "Retreat!"

"Dranzer! Fire Arrow!"

The phoenix emerged and headed straight for Tamara's beyblade, succeeding in driving it back onto a geyser. A second later, the geyser exploded in a rush of hot air, and Amethyst went flying. Tamara breathed a sigh when her beyblade righted itself and landed in front of her in the dish.

Kai smirked over at her. "That was just luck."

"Really?" Tamara raised an eyebrow and Kai tried to figure out what she was up to. "Amethyst! Fox Dance!"

Kai frowned across at Tamara, who simply grinned back at him. When he looked back into the dish, he could see that there were four beyblades heading straight for Dranzer. Each one was identical in colour, shape and speed and Kai realised that it was some kind of illusion.

"Dranzer! Retreat!" he called to his blade as he tried to find out what Tamara was up to. The last time they had fought, she had used that move to get away from him. So which was it? Offensive or defensive? Or was it even both?

Dranzer skidded off around the dish, with the other blades fast on its tail. Without warning, a beyblade hit a geyser and went spinning into the air. It landed near enough on top of Dranzer and skidded off as Kai's beyblade wobbled before righting itself. Kai forced himself to remain calm as another blade slammed into Dranzer from the side before disappearing, using the mist to hide itself.

Tamara was almost giggling on the other side. Kai was no where near strong enough to take on her Amethyst. Not when she had this mist to her advantage. She chanced a look at Kai. He was fuming at her sneak attacks. Well, good, that would teach him for foiling her prank earlier that morning. She had just wanted to get a picture of him walking in on Raine so she could use it as blackmail. But no… he had had to notice little things about her trap, like the others had conveniently avoided the bathroom all day, even going so far as to pee outside to relieve themselves. There was also that little issue of him finding Ray and Rena in the closet that Lea had warned them all to stay away from. Now that was when she wished she had a camera. That was a priceless moment…

Kai frowned, deep in thought, even as Tyson's voice rang out across the arena.

"KAI, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! JUST ATTACK HER!"

"Tyson's right!" Kenny yelled alongside his friend. "She's wearing you down bit by bit!"

"Shit," Tamara muttered under her breath. They had figured out her plan. She sent Tyson and Kenny a glare that made them shrink back behind the safety of the railing, and Ray.

Kai smirked at her. Tamara glared back.

"Dranzer! Charge them!"

Dranzer immediately turned and began heading towards the nearest blade. Tamara cursed under her breath. The illusion disappeared as Dranzer was about to hit it and Kai's beyblade skidded onto a geyser.

The others watched as one illusion after another disappeared until only one beyblade was left. Kai grinned as Dranzer made a beeline right for it.

"Amethyst!" Tamara yelled. "Fire Fox Dance!"

Kai smirked. "The same attack won't…"

He couldn't believe what happened next. One minute, Dranzer had been heading towards Amethyst, and the next, the dish was completely full to the brim of Amethyst-shaped beyblades.

"What the…?" he wandered, a split second before they all attacked.

"Twenty on Tamara!" Rena called out suddenly. Her hangover had managed to subside and some part of her suddenly had the urge to gamble.

Davi resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

Raine looked down at the two drunkenly and silently measured up the odds, even though her head still felt like she was stuck in a tornado.

"I'll take that!" Lea growled out, raising a bottle of wine to Rena.

"Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?" Ray called over to them.

Kai forced himself to ignore the fact that the others were betting on them like they were racehorses and concentrated on the match. One by one, he took down the illusion blades, but he was rapidly tiring. Dranzer was already started to spin unsteadily as it cracked down on another five. He needed to figure out which one was the real blade quickly, otherwise he would lose the match. He had already promised himself that he would win, so failure here was not an option.

Tamara barely resisted the urge to snicker. This was going all too well, despite the fact that she had had to use a forbidden technique. Kezza was going to kill her if she found out.

Kai felt like collapsing onto a nice warm bed and sleeping for eternity. He knew he couldn't actually do that, of course, he had to figure out which beyblade was real. But how…? He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Blocking out the arguments that were going on between the rest of his and Tamara's teams about who was going to win, he concentrated all he could on Dranzer.

A blast of hot air hit his face. His eyes snapped open. That was it!

He grinned across at Tamara and shouted on his bitbeast. "Dranzer!"

His beyblade, sensing his plan, spun onto the nearest geyser and was sent spinning into the air. The phoenix emerged once more in a flash of light and looked down at the dish below it.

"Fire Arrow!" Kai yelled.

"Fox Fire Attack!" Tamara countered.

Fire met fire and light blasted out of the dish as the two attacks clashed together.

A moment later, two beyblades clattered to the floor on either side.

Kai stared, stunned that she still had that much power left, and turned to his left. Dranzer was lying on the floor, almost unrecognisable. There were many deep dents and gouges in the metal that Kai knew would be a pain to fix.

Tamara was glaring at him as she picked up her blade. The others had stopped their argument about whether gambling was good for you or not to stare at the two who they'd been betting on.

"Is it a draw?" Lea asked, her words slurring slightly.

"Maybe…" Rena told her, watching the two below with interest.

Kai finally found the energy to move and went over to his blade. He stood staring down at Dranzer for a moment before crouching and picking it up. His muscles winced in protest but he ignored them for now. Frowning at his battered blade, he turned to leave but Lea's voice stopped him.

"Hey! This can't be a draw!" she managed to yell across at Davi. "Either one wins, or they don't, there is no draw here." She dropped down into her seat, guzzled down the rest of her wine and muttered under her breath, "And I want my damned money."

"Davi," Rena called out. "Can't you like… flip a coin? To see who wins?"

Davi looked over at the Bladebreakers, who each nodded in agreement. Shrugging, she stood and held up one hand. "If that's what you guys want…"

She flipped a coin. Everyone watched as it flew up through the air, rolling over and over before it came down. Davi caught it in one hand and slammed it against her other arm.

"Well?" she looked down at Tamara and Kai.

"Tails," Tamara said immediately, bouncing once more.

Kai folded his arms. "Guess I'll take heads."

Davi removed her hand and smirked. "Heads."

"WHAT!" Tamara had stopped bouncing and was glaring up at Davi. She looked as though she was going to launch Amethyst before she turned away and sniffed. "I just wanted to win."

Something hit the back of her head.

"Hey!" she called out, spinning round to see who it was. The others had remained up in the boxes. Kai sent a frown up to Davi. When Tamara followed his gaze, she saw Davi holding up a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

"Oooh!" She grinned up at Davi, clapping her hands together and waiting for the other teen to throw her treat down. Cadbury's was her favourite chocolate in the whole world, and it made even more hyper than normal candy too.

Kai wandered how someone could have so much energy and watched as Davi threw the chocolate down. Tamara caught the bar, tore it open and devoured most of it in one go.

"Good match!" she said to Kai.

Kai watched, speechless, as she made her way to the rest of her team and sat down in between Rena and Raine. She was completely oblivious to the hostile glares from the other two girls as she concentrated entirely on her chocolate. Shaking his head, Kai made his way back to the rest of his team.

"You alright, Kai?" Max asked, casting a worried look Kai's way.

"Fine," Kai answered and glanced over at Kenny. He would need to get the chief to take a look at his blade as soon as possible. For now though, he would have to wait. Kenny was typing vigorously at his laptop, deep in thought.

"The next match will be a three days," Davi announced and turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Davi looked over her shoulder at the Bladebreakers. Ray met her gaze and she turned to face them. "Yes?"

"I'd rather fight now," Ray called out. "We all know who the next match will be against, and I'm not the best at waiting."

Davi raised an eyebrow.

"He certainly doesn't have much patience," Rena muttered under her breath. Unfortunately, in large rooms, even the smallest whisper can turn into a shout with ease and everyone turned to look at her. She felt her neck turn bright red from their looks and when she glanced at Ray, she noticed that his face had taken on a pinkish tinge.

"Any objections?" Davi asked, glancing around at the faces. There was a collection of No's from around the room. She sighed before resuming her seat. "Alright then, Ray, Paine, take your places."

"That wasn't the best thing to do," Kenny said as Ray headed for the steps. "You'd be best to quit now. I still can't find anything about this attack of Paine's, other than he leaves his opponents in a catatonic state."

"I'll be careful," Ray assured his friends.

Raine reached behind her to wake up her twin brother. "Hey, Paine, you're up next."

"No, 'm not, bugger off," Paine muttered sleepily. Raine whacked his arm and he sat up, clutching his hand close to him. "That hurt!"

"You're up next," Rena said.

"Oh, okay."

Raine glared at the teen sitting two seats from her. How was it that Rena could get Paine to move with a look while his own sister can only stand and shout? Raine really needed a vacation. And Raine also needs to stop thinking about oneself in third person. Raine not the Queen. Raine really needs a vacation.

Paine looked tired. Ray mused that last time, Tyson had also took that the wrong way and forced the teen to battle. Maybe that had been why Paine had snapped and taken Tyson out as quickly as possible.

The fire dish had disappeared, and another had taken its place. This one resembled a mountain range that had been turned and compressed into the small beyblade dish. There were many nooks and crannies in the rock walls that a beyblade could easily either hide in or get stuck in and there were many sheer drops that edged a path through the peaks.

Ray frowned at it, he'd seen this dish before somewhere. Wordlessly, he got ready, holding up his launcher, he frowned across at Paine, who had taken the same pose as before. He had his arms near his feet and was half bent over, hair hiding his face from Ray's view. Ray tensed, waiting for the others to start up their chant.

"3… 2… 1…"

"Let it rip!" Ray shouted, letting Driger loose into the dish. The same as before, Paine swung round, sending his beyblade high into the air before it came crashing down on a ledge near Ray.

Driger had disappeared along the path, and it didn't take Paine long to brush his hair out of his way and smirk across at Ray.

Ray suppressed a shudder at the darkness in Paine's eyes and looked down into the dish.

"You want to know why, don't you."

There was no question in Paine's voice as he spoke. Ray kept his gaze on the dish, searching for his beyblade as Paine continued.

"Simple, I didn't want to fight him! And I don't want to fight you!"

Ray looked up then, and froze at the look in Paine's eyes.

"Blake!" Paine shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls and echoing around the arena. The crow rose from the blade still spinning in front of Ray and pinned the teenager with a fierce glare.

Ray couldn't breathe as the crow flapped its wings, sending gusts of air at the Chinese boy. Ray's hands came up to his throat. He tried to call on Driger, but all he could see were the cold eyes glaring down at him. He tried to turn away, but could only see darkness, no matter where he turned, there was just black.

Behind him, the crow started to rise. Far away, there was shouting, and then the crow dived straight down. Ray screamed in pain as the bird entered his body and talons ripped through his skin.

In the distance, someone was laughing. He knew that voice, it was Paine. He was laughing at Ray's pain. But why?

The crow twisted suddenly, sending a fresh wave of pain all over Ray's body. What the hell was it doing? Why was he surrounded in darkness? Where were the others? He tried to yell for help, but all that came out of his throat was a croak. He tried again, but his throat was too dry.

Still struggling for breath, Ray fell to his knees, and looked down at the ground. He could hear something, someone was crying. When he finally found the strength to look up, Ray saw a little boy sitting on a swing. It was too dark to see much else, the boy's hair was covering his face and he was clutching something to his chest.

Ray tried to get up, and ask the boy who he was, but his throat was too sore, and the crow was starting to move again.

As if he sensed it, the boy looked up, and his gaze rested on Ray. Ray's eyes widened when he saw who the boy was. The eyes were the same, only these were filled with hurt and sadness. Ray was looking straight at a much younger Paine.

"What are you doing?" the boy asked. Ray tried to suppress a smile when the boy cocked his head to one side, just like a birds. There was a curious look on his face. Ray winced when the crow began to move again, it clawed through his very flesh until Ray felt his skin break and the bird rose out of him, spreading its wings. Ray looked over at the boy. Any trace of childishness was now gone, and in its place was complete anger. Ray had never seen someone hate him so much, not Kai when Tyson refused to train. Not his grandparents when he politely declined marrying Mariah. Nothing Ray had seen could prepare him for the look of anger in Paine's eyes.

The boy shrank back further into himself as the crow glared down at him. He was shaking now, and fresh tears were rolling down his face. The crow cawed and dived towards the boy, and straight into whatever the kid was holding. Ray's eyes widened in surprise when the thing started to glow and the boy held it up.

"GET OUT!" the kid yelled at him. Ray struggled to stand, but his knees gave out on him. He was so tired, he just wanted to rest. His eyes started to drift shut as the boy ran over to him, his green and pink eyes blazing with hatred. Ray swayed slightly, and started to fall forward, but the boy caught him and with strength that Ray would never have thought the boy had, he pushed him backwards.

Ray felt himself falling through the darkness, looking up at the boy with the glowing thing in his hands. He frowned then, that thing looked like a---

He hit the floor hard, gasping as pain rippled through his system. In the distance, he could hear the others shouting, could feel the vibrations as they rushed down the stairs. Paine's laughter had stopped, and for that, Ray was grateful, he didn't think he would've been able to handle it at the moment. Rena was the first to reach him and gently touched his shoulder.

"Ray, are you alright?" she asked. He tried to crack a smile when someone sarcastically told her that he wasn't. She glared at them. "Shut up, Tammy."

Ray looked around, searching for his team mates. Rena was on his left, he could feel her arm slide under his back and gently pull him into a sitting position. He winced, but other than that, didn't move. He liked being in Rena's arms. His other friends crowded round him on his right, except for Tyson, who he could hear complaining above him. Ray tried to smile again, but it hurt too much, so he settled for just looking instead. His gaze landed on Kai.

"I…" God, his throat was killing him, but he needed to tell Kai what he had to do to win. There was a way to beat Paine, Ray had seen it. "Kai…"

"You should rest," the Russian said, but the look in his eyes told Ray that he would listen later. "That was a pretty strong hit you took."

" 'Kay…" Ray muttered as he fell into darkness once more.

Tbc…


	18. Insecurities

AN- Originally, this chapter was gonna be called 'Midnight Meetings' but I had a feeling a certain friend was gonna kill me for calling it that, so instead, it got changed to what it is now. And yes, I figure that Kai is totally OOC in this chapter, more so than any other. Anyways, enough blabbering from me, enjoy this chappie and review! There aint much more to this story left.

Disclaimer: Have I mentioned recently how much I hate these things? You know the drill, Bladebreakers not mine, other characters belong to me and my friends.

One other thing, MSWord isn't being very nice at the moment, so apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes that there may be.

**Snow Secrets**

**Insecurities**

Kai had to force himself to stop shaking as he stepped up opposite Paine. The other boy had never looked more awake than he did right then. Kai had to admit that Paine was powerful, strong enough to knock out Tyson and Ray in one shot, although Ray had somehow been able to see how he did it. Kai curled his hands into fists. He knew exactly how he was going to beat Paine. And he would definitely win this Tournament.

"So, we meet at last," Paine said with a grin that sent a shiver up Kai's spine. There was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Kai glared and got ready. His muscles were still aching from his battle with Tamara. His legs were shaking and refused to stop no matter how many times he threatened them.

Paine continued to grin and they both waited for the others to start up the chant. He wasn't getting ready. The others weren't chanting. Kai started to realise that something was wrong. Paine's grin disappeared when Kai looked away. What the heck was going on? Kai wandered. Where are the others? Are they here? Is this even real?

"Forest Talon!" Paine yelled suddenly.

Kai turned round too late. The crow had already dived down and into him, just like it had with Ray. Claws dug into his back, and he screamed in pain.

Still screaming, Kai hit the floor, entangled in his sheets. Panting and covered in sweat, he fought his way out of the sheets and stood up, leaning against the wall. Sweat rolled down his skin as he realised that it was just a dream. No, not a dream, a nightmare. Kai shook his head, no, he didn't have nightmares, not since that time when he stole Black Dranzer. Shaking, he sank to the floor and brought his knees to his chest. He was still breathing heavily, and his heart was pounding in his ears.

It was just a dream, it wasn't real. He kept telling himself if wasn't real, it was a dream. It was just a dream.

It didn't make him feel any better about it though. He could barely believe that he had had a nightmare over a small player. He hadn't even heard about this Paine guy until he'd arrived at this castle. If Paine really was as powerful as the others claimed, then why hadn't he entered the world championships or something? If he could wipe Tyson out that easily, then he could surely take on quite a few teams by himself and defeat them all with that one attack.

Kai shook his head to try and rid himself of annoying questions and managed to stand up without his legs collapsing.

Slowly, he headed over to the window and threw it open. The snow breezed in, cooling his heated skin. He closed his eyes, letting the cold wash over him, and sensed someone watching him.

He opened his eyes and looked down at the garden that his room was above. Someone was sitting on a bench in the middle. He couldn't see their face, but they picked something up off the ground and threw it. A white shape chased it across the garden, picked it up and brought it back to the person.

"Can't sleep?" a voice called up to him. He sighed, that voice belonged to Davi. But what was she doing awake in the middle of the night?

"Not really," he called down to her.

She titled her head back, and watched him for a while. "You worried about Ray?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Kai snapped back, suddenly angry that this person had brought them all here. She was the reason that they were all here, she was the reason Tyson had been injured. She was the reason Ray was now in a hospital bed.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, as the white shape leapt onto the bench next to her.

Kai snorted and turned away, leaving the window open behind him. Angrily, he got dressed, grabbed Dranzer and headed downstairs. She wasn't sorry, he knew it, and he would make her sorry, he would make her apologize if it took all his strength to do so.

Once he'd navigated the winding corridors, he found himself standing in the garden, glaring across at the girl. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You want a battle?" she asked.

"I want a real apology," he answered, clicking Dranzer into place. "Not just empty words."

She sighed and stood, gently pushing the white shape away. Now that he was close enough, Kai noticed that the shape was actually a very big white dog. The canine sat up, watching the two with interest as Davi stood a few meters away from Kai.

"Well?" she asked, as if she had more important things to do.

Kai glared at let Dranzer go without any warning. The dog barked.

Davi grinned at him and yelled, "Kayite!"

A massive black shape appeared in the yard in front of her. Dranzer bouced off harmlessly and skidded across the ground to spin on the spot in front of Kai. He watched, amazed, as the blackness began to take shape and a pair of gold eyes appeared, followed by a large head, heavy shoulders and a powerful body.

Kai was sure he was looking at a large bear, but when the thing turned to look at Davi, he saw it's profile against the white dog behind it and knew that this wasn't a bear. It was a very big dog.

The large canine turned back to Kai and snarled, golden eyes gleaming. Kai hesitated, wandering whether he should attack or not, but the dog made that decision for him.

It began to run towards Kai, who took a step back in fear. Before it could pounce, he managed to summon Dranzer.

The phoenix rose in front of him like a beacon through the darkness. Davi grinned.

"Spiral Survivor!" Kai yelled, already moving out of the way as the dog jumped into the air.

"Shadow Bind!" Davi yelled at the dog.

Still growling, the dog stood up on its hind legs and grabbed the phoenix with powerful front paws. Kai watched as the phoenix tried to get away, but the moon appeared behind Davi, casting the dog's shadow over the flaming bird.

Davi smirked at Kai.

Kai could feel something cold sliding over his skin. His legs refused to move, his arms were pinned to his side, but his head was still free. He looked down and froze. There was a black shadow moving across his body, curling round his frame and holding him in place.

When he looked over at Dranzer, he saw that the same had happened. The phoenix' fire was starting to die down as the dog's shadow took a hold of it.

Wait! The dog's shadow was winding round his bitbeast, but where was this other one coming from?

He looked down again and saw the shadow snaking back through the grass and path. He followed it with his eyes and found himself looking at Davi.

"If you're this angry," she said, her hand outstretched towards him, curled into a fist. "Then you should take it out on Paine. Your match is in a few days and you really should be training with your friends rather that making fruitless attempts to take me on."

He glared at her. She turned to the large dog and whistled. He backed off immediately and disappeared. Davi's shadow snaked back to her and she leaned down and ruffled the white dog's ears.

Kai headed over to Dranzer, who stopped spinning at his feet.

"If you really want to know about Paine's ways," Davi said, "Then you should ask someone who has undergone his attack."

He turned to ask her what the hell that meant, but she was already gone. Growling in frustration, he slammed his fist into the wall and slid to the ground. What the hell did she mean? He looked over at Dranzer for a moment, his knuckles bleeding, and reached over to his beyblade.

Did she mean talk to Ray? Technically speaking, he had managed to survive Paine's attack, but could he talk? He had tried to say something before but everyone had ignored him. They had wanted him to get medical attention as quickly as possible.

Kai sighed. It looked like he had no choice.

Shaking his head, he made his way inside. Briefly, he considered going back to his room but decided against it. He needed time to think. To sort things out… To do something other than sleep. If he slept, he was sure he'd have that nightmare again.

He stopped when he found himself moving along a familiar corridor. When he looked up, he saw that he had made his way to the medical area. Where Ray was.

Sighing, he supposed it wouldn't be too bad to visit his friend, so he pushed open the door and stepped inside. He shouldn't have been surprised to find that Ray was awake, and lying on his bed watching the window, but he was.

"Hey," Kai said softly.

"Hey," Ray replied with a grin. It obviously hurt, though and disappeared quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep," Kai admitted softly. He edged across the room and took the seat beside Ray's bed. "How are you?"

"Alright," Ray said, wincing as he struggled to sit up further. "Kai… About Paine…"

"I know," Kai answered, watching the snow build up against the window. "He's strong, and powerful, and--"

"No, not that," Ray said. "Kai, listen to me. There's a way to beat him."

* * *

Kai awoke the next morning wandering whether it had all been a dream or not. His fight with Davi, his talk with Ray, and finally the long journey back up to his room to collapse on his bed in a heap. He hadn't even bothered to take his clothes off, so he reasoned that it probably wasn't a dream after all. Except for where he had been fighting Paine, that had to have been a dream. There was no way that could have been real. 

Slowly, he sat up, wandering what the hell he was going to do now. His match with Paine was coming up faster than he expected, and he still needed to get Kenny to check on his blade. He needed it in top condition if he was going to be training today, like he had planned. A knock on his door startled him and he spun round.

"Who's there?" he asked.

The door opened and Max poked his head in. "Hey, Kai, you'll need to get ready soon."

Kai frowned. "Why?"

"Your match with Paine is today," the blond answered. "The others are ready to go."

* * *

"You might have told me that I had a match today," Kai grumbled as he entered the arena. He could already see the Sirens at the other end, waiting for the coming match. 

"You were sleeping," Max told him. "We didn't have the heart to wake you."

"What do you mean, sleeping?" Kai asked with a frown.

"Hey, Kai, have a good sleep?" Tyson asked as Kai sat down, still frowning. "I thought you were going to sleep forever."

"You slept two days straight," Max whispered to Kai.

Kai frowned and put his head in his hands. Great, now he had hardly any chance of winning this match. He hadn't trained, hadn't got his blade back to normal. The fight with Davi had somehow managed to warp his attack ring and his blade probably wouldn't balance out properly.

"Kai, don't look so down," Max said from beside him. "You can do this."

Should he quit now?

What the hell? Kai, what the hell are you thinking? You come this far only to quit because you didn't train? You're a frigging natural! Use your damn instincts!

"Who the hell are you?" Kai mumbled under his breath. Max frowned at him.

"Kai, Paine," Davi called, turning to each beyblader. "Take your positions."

Kai looked up as Paine made his way down the steps. Maybe he should just quit now, Dranzer was in no condition to fight-- No! There had to be something wrong with him today. He had worked hard to get as far as he did, and he was here thinking about quitting?

"Kai!" Davi called over to him. He looked up and met her gaze as she asked, "You ready?"

Kai sighed and headed towards the steps. Paine was waiting in the arena already, and the look on his face brought back memories from Kai's dream. Steadying himself, Kai started to head down the steps, taking them one at a time. His hand moved to his pocket to clutch his beyblade. He could only hope that they were both ready for this.

When he stepped up opposite Paine, he felt a shiver creep down his spine. There was something seriously wrong with that boy, Kai knew, and it scared him more than he cared to admit.

Tbc…


	19. The Secret Revealed

AN- The first thing I want to say is how much I really do not like this chapter, but I wanted to post it anyway before I change my mind about it. Second, I got no reviews for the last chappie, where are you guys? And third, there is only one more chappie of this story to go so pretty please enjoy and review. My fingers are going to kill me tomorrow. Hope to have the last chappie up on Wednesday, if my muse can get off his arse long enough to let me write it.

Disclaimer- usual, Bladebreakers not mine. Other characters belong to me and my mates.

**Snow Secrets**

**The Secret Revealed**

Kai's hands curled into fists as Paine grinned across at him. There had to be something wrong with the other teenager. His strange eyes were turning darker and darker with each passing second, and Kai found himself wandering whether he got teased as a kid. That also meant, Kai wandered whether Paine's eyes and hair were actually real or contact lenses and hair dye. After wandering for a few minutes, he decided that he really did not want to know.

Paine's smile disappeared. He didn't say anything except bring his hands up and then lean down. Kai recognised the pose. He was waiting for the match to begin.

Between them, the dish didn't change, and Kai realised that Davi wasn't going to give either an advantage in this situation. She was going to test their most basic of skills. If either won, it wouldn't be because Kai's bitbeast fared better in warmer climates or because Paine's could do whatever Paine's could do. Kai still wasn't actually sure what kind of attacks Paine had – with the exception of the one that he had already used in front of everyone.

Trying to stop himself from shaking, Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out Dranzer and his launcher. His fingers closed around his beyblade and he looked down at it.

To his surprise, he saw that Dranzer was in perfect shape. Someone had remolded his attack ring back to what it was and Kai had a sneaking suspicion he knew who. A glance over his shoulder confirmed it, Kenny was grinning down at him. Kai managed to smirk back and turned back to his blade. Dranzer also seemed slightly heavier, but Kai wasn't sure since he was shaking so much.

Kai closed his eyes, and hoped that maybe luck was on his side. He could sense Paine getting more and more impatient by the second. Sure enough, when Kai opened his eyes again, he saw Paine glaring at him across the dish. The other boy was already in position, hands down near his ankles, lower than they had been before. Kai frowned at that. Was he going to use another technique? Another form of offense? Or was it just a variation of his launch technique?

Kai had no clue. He looked up at Davi, who was frowning down at Paine. Maybe it just wasn't something that he'd done before.

Straigtening his shoulders, Kai clicked Dranzer into place and held him at the ready. Only this time, he tried something different. Instead of aiming directly into the dish, Kai raised his launcher until it was pointed almost straight up into the air. With any luck, Kai knew that this way, with Paine's odd launch technique, there was a chance that the two blades would clash in the air.

"3…"

Kai tensed.

"2…"

Paine glared.

"1…"

Kai's arms were getting tired.

"LET IT RIP!"

Paine yelled along with the others as he launched his beyblade. Kai hesitated for a second before launching Dranzer, calculating when the two would cross. Kai's luck seemed to hold out as both smashed together, forcing the other down into the dish in front of the owners.

Paine was shaking, his hands in fists at his sides as he glared down into the dish. Kai wandered if someone could really 'glare daggers' and concentrated on Dranzer. He knew that attacking would be exactly what Paine would want and so Kai wanted to avoid doing that unless he absolutely had to. Until he had an opening, Kai knew he had to stick to defensive, more so in this match than any other.

From what he could gather from the other battles he'd seen, Paine didn't actually attack the beyblade, he sent his bitbeast straight after the blader he was facing. This made him several times more dangerous than many other opponents that Kai had faced. It also meant that this would be an interesting match.

"Blake!" Paine yelled suddenly.

Kai looked up in time to see Paine's beyblade making a beeline for his own. "Dranzer, move out the way!"

His beyblade barely managed to respond on time, shooting off around the dish while Blake almost went over the edge before it righted itself and sped after Dranzer. Round and round the dish, the two beyblades chased each other, Blake taking shortcuts to try and intercept the other blade, and Dranzer dodging and spinning off, forcing Paine's beyblade to follow.

Above, Raine frowned down on them. "What the hell is he doing? He never draws out a match this long…"

"Maybe he wants to destroy Dranzer first before going after Kai," Rena suggested. She turned to Lea. "Didn't you sort out Kai's beyblade?"

"Yeah," Lea nodded. "With Kenny's help. But that might not help him here. We gave him a heavier weight to help his spin. Also… it looked like he'd fought Davi."

"What?" Rena and Raine both turned to look at the other girl.

"His attack ring was a complete mess," Lea explained. "It looked warped, like Tamara's looked the first time she went up against Davi. It was like it had been melted down. It looked as though Davi used her Shadow Bind technique."

"That's because he did fight her," Tamara said as she joined the other girls. "A few nights ago, I went down to the kitchen for something to eat and I saw them. Both Davi and Kayite had twisted their shadows around Kai and Dranzer. But I didn't stick around to find out what happened." She shivered. "I still have nightmares about that damn technique."

"I hope she just warned him," Rena muttered. "And why were you going down o the kitchen?"

Tamara grinned and began to edge away.

"That would also explain why Kai's been asleep the past few days and not training," Raine said, folding her arms. She watched as Blake made another attempt to hit Kai and fail. "I half expected him to be outside every single day without resting," she went on. "But then again… he could always have been training in his sleep."

Rena frowned at her for that.

"What?" Raine asked. "You know how much Paine's attack affects the mind. If Kai's been sleeping a lot, that means his mind's well rested and he should be ready for the attack. It also means he's probably been going through different scenarios in his dreams. I mean, look at his style, his normal technique is to attack as soon as possible and yet today, he's completely on the defensive."

The others watched for a few minutes in silence.

"Maybe Davi gave him a few tips," Lea suggested. "That might explain his behaviour today."

Raine watched Davi for a few minutes. The other teen sat forward in her chair, fingers laced together with her head resting on her hands. She was glancing between the two beybladers, a slight frown on her face.

"I don't think so," Raine concluded, her gaze moved back to the match in front of her. "She looks like she's trying to figure out who's stronger."

Kai wasn't sure if Paine was starting to tire or if he was just playing games. Either way, Blake seemed to be faltering, it wasn't spinning so fast, or as smoothly. Paine himself was breathing harder than normal, like he was fighting to stay standing. Kai allowed himself a small smirk, maybe he had worn him down too much to—

"Blake!" Paine yelled, throwing his head back. "Forest Talon!"

Kai's smirk disappeared. What the heck was that? Kai knew he had heard that attack before. He had seen it, he was sure he had seen it before.

Cawing, the crow rose out of the beyblade and glared down at Dranzer. Kai winced at the malice in its glare. He had seen a similar look before, he knew it. Still glaring, the crow flapped its wings, and the wind that it generated went straight for Dranzer.

Kai's eyes widened as the winds hit Dranzer head on, causing it to spin unsteadily as it was forced back. The dish beneath it began to crack and Kai winced as Dranzer tripped over one of the cracks. Luckily, his blade managed to right itself and spin out of the wind's way.

Paine was seriously starting to lose it. Kai took his chance with the opening he had found.

"Dranzer! Fire Arrow!"

"IDIOT!" Kenny yelled out.

"Too late," Raine muttered, leaning back. There wasn't much point in watching the match any longer, it was clear who was going to be the winner.

"No, it's not," Rena said. Raine frowned at her friend, and then down at the dish. This match was over, wasn't it?

Paine smirked at Kai. The attack had had no effect on Blake, the crow had merely swooped out of the way at the last second, leaving the phoenix waiting for Kai's next command.

"Blake!" Paine yelled.

"Dranzer, move!" Kai shouted as Blake began to dive towards the phoenix. Obediently, Dranzer moved to one side, and the crow swept past.

Kai realised his mistake too late.

Cawing in delight, the crow dived right down into Kai's body. Kai felt the talons immediately rip into his skin and pain flared through his entire system. He felt like he was going to be ripped apart. Feathers tickled his face as the crow disappeared into his own body. Everytime he moved, it hurt, everytime he tried to think, it hurt.

Kai fell to his knees with a strangled cry, and spat blood onto the floor below him. It hurt so much, he was sure the crow was ripping up his insides. Darkness sprang up around him. Paine was laughing in the distance. God, he hated that laugh. He hated that laugh so much he wanted to kill Paine for it. Simply because it was Paine that was laughing.

He could feel the crow moving around in his stomach, and Kai was sure that the bird was trying to push its way out of his body. Crying out in pain again, Kai rolled over onto his back, just trying to concentrate on breathing and breathing alone. It hurt to breathe, but his body needed to, and so he did. Everytime his chest rose, the crow moved and it hurt. Everytime his chest fell, he could feel the crow shift again, and it felt like his organs were crushed together.

Something tickled his cheek.

Carefully, Kai opened his eyes and saw a black feather blocking his view. Another fell and landed on his arm. He looked down at it and wandered what was going on.

"Hurts, doesn't it?"

Kai looked up. Paine was standing over him, the light was catching the pink highlights in his hair.

"Tell me, Kai," Paine said, kneeling down. "How much does it hurt?"

Kai could barely breathe without his body hurting, and Paine expected him to answer? Gritting his teeth, the Russian turned his head, looking away from Paine.

Water dripped onto his cheek.

Startled, Kai looked up again, and saw another tear slowly make its way down Paine's cheek. Kai frowned at that, why was he crying?

One of Paine's hands came up, clutching his chest over his heart, "Because it hurts so much, that's why."

Kai wanted to know why it hurt. Paine smiled down at him, but the smile was forced, and they both knew it.

"You're a good beyblader, Kai," Paine said, still smiling despite the tears rolling down his face. His eyes closed for a second, and Kai wished he wasn't there. He could feel that there was something wrong here. Where were the others? Paine's eyes opened and Kai wished he was anywhere but there. Paine glared down at the Russian. "I'll admit that with a blade, you are excellent, but when it comes to people, Kai, you're weak."

Kai frowned and felt the crow move. He cried out in pain.

"Yes, Kai, I hope it hurts," Paine spat down. "I hope it hurts until you die."

"Why…" Kai managed to get out. His throat hurt so much, but he wanted to know. He had to know. "Why… are you… doing…this… to me?"

Paine sneered and leaned in closer, so that they were almost nose to nose. "You don't remember me?" he asked, "Do you?"

"What?" Kai choked out. He had never seen Paine before. Ever.

"You don't even remember what you did to me," Paine said, the sadness creeping into his voice once more. The anger was completely gone. "When I was six, I wanted nothing more than to beyblade. It was my life. It was my dream, and you destroyed all of it. You and your damned Dranzer."

Kai's eyes widened and he tried to explain. "That…"

"Wasn't you?" Paine sneered once more. "I know it was you. You are the only person who could handle Black Dranzer. You are the only one who ever could. And you killed him, you killed Alexander, my old bit beast. You tore him apart right in front of my eyes."

More tears fell onto Kai's face. Kai wanted to close his eyes, to block it all out, but the crow moved inside him and he cried out in pain.

Slowly, he managed to say, "I'm… sorry…"

"No, you're not," Paine glared down at him. "And you never were. I got kicked out of the Abbey after that. Because of you. People made fun of me because of my looks. They never gave me a chance. Until Blake found me. He found me and then Davi found me. She recognised my skills as a blader and allowed me to train here. She let me work out all my anger and hatred, and then she organised this tournament. Just so that I could fight you."

Kai watched as Paine turned and disappeared into the darkness. The crow cawed again, and Kai choked on a scream as it tried to rip its way out of his throat, and succeeded.

As soon as it was out, Blake stared down at Kai with cold eyes, almost daring Kai to try something. Well, Kai wasn't going to give the crow the chance. He was too tired to do anything.

"So," Kai managed to choke out. Blood trickled down his throat and there was an edge to his voice that hadn't been there before. "What are you going to do now? Kill me? Just because I beat you when you were a kid?"

Paine didn't answer.

Kai forced his limbs to move. It hurt like hell, but he had to move, he knew it. All his body seemed to want to do was lie down and die, but he wasn't going to. He wasn't going to lose this battle. He couldn't lose.

"Well, I'm sorry!" Kai yelled into the darkness as he struggled to stand. "But I'm not just going to sit there and let you try and kill me! I'm going to fight! I really am sorry about destroying your bitbeast, but now you have a much more powerful one. And you should use it to your advantage. You've already beaten Tyson, and Ray, and if you want to be accepted as the best blader you can be, then enter next year's World Championships!"

Paine still remained silent.

Kai whirled round and felt Dranzer nearby. The phoenix was trying to get into this place. He smirked when the fire dispelled the darkness, revealing Paine to Kai's right. He turned to look at the other boy. Blake was sitting calmly on Paine's shoulder, head cocked and eyes on Kai.

"I am sorry about Alexander," Kai said, putting his hands down as Dranzer rose up behind him. "But you have Blake now. And I have Dranzer. And I don't like to lose! Fire Arrow!"

Paine didn't have time to dodge the sudden attack that came his way. Blake however, took to flight and headed straight for Kai and Dranzer, taking the attack head on.

The darkness faded. The light became too bright. Both bladers had been knocked to the floor at the same time.

Slowly, Kai struggled to sit up. His head ached like he'd just taken on a Sumo and lost. Dranzer was lying at his feet. Had he lost? Had he won? He looked up and saw that Paine was in a similar position. Blake was sitting by his feet.

Had it been a draw?

Tbc…


	20. Rematches and Decisions

Disclaimer: Nope, Bladebreakers not mine, Sirens belong to my friends and AN is at the bottom of this chapter.

**Snow Secrets**

**Rematches and Decisions**

What the hell had just happened?

Davi's gaze moved from Kai, to Paine, studying each of them for a second before moving to the other. Both looked exhausted, and surprised, and neither seemed to want to move. Kai had scratches on his cheek from where he had fallen to the floor, and Paine was just staring across the dish at the other boy.

"Is it a draw?" someone called out.

"Can't be, there are no draws," Rena replied. She frowned across at Davi. "Are there?"

Davi sighed and leaned back. There was no clear winner, that was for sure, this had been a draw. Neither Paine nor Kai were more powerful than the other. She would leave that for them to decide.

"Who won?" Tyson yelled out.

"Good question," Lea said, standing. "Looked like Paine to me. His attack is the one that got them into this."

"No, Kai won," Raine growled back, slumping in her chair. "If he hadn't broken out of Paine's illusion, then Paine would have won."

"But both beyblades left the stadium at the same time," Rena joined in.

Below them, Kai struggled to stand up. He knew it would only be a matter of time before his legs gave out. There was also blood on his face from some kind of cut but he ignored it and picked up Dranzer. With his beyblade in his hand, he moved round the dish to Paine and offered him a hand up.

"That was a good match, I hope we can play again sometime," he managed to say. His breath was coming in short, painful pants, and Paine only stared at the offered hand. Kai hoped that he would take it, his arm was gonna kill him. Paine looked away and reached to his own blade. Kai's legs finally decided to give out and he collapsed beside Paine.

"What's going on?" Max asked quietly.

"No clue," Ray replied, equally as quiet.

Davi remained silent, as did the Sirens, as they watched the two fallen bladers.

"Thank you," Paine muttered finally. He struggled to stand and finally succeeded, almost smiling down at Kai. "For what you did."

Kai nodded and watched as Paine started to walk off. The other boy disappeared through a door that was hidden underneath the box where the Sirens were. Turning back to Davi, he smirked up at her, "So… who won?"

"No one," Davi declared. "It was a draw."

"WHAT!" Tamara shouted. "But you flipped a coin for my match!"

"Both Kai and Paine have almost equal power, it would be pointless to decide who is stronger by chance." Davi stood there, and began to leave. She paused and looked over her shoulder down at Kai. "You learn quickly," she said, and then left.

"Huh?" Tamara looked from where Davi had disappeared, to Kai, to the wall and back to Kai again. "What the hell was that all about?"

"Dunno, don't care," Lea muttered and began heading down the steps to Kai. "But if he doesn't get medical attention soon, he's going to faint."

* * *

Once again, Davi found Paine in the library, staring at the ceiling. He seemed to be sleeping, but the slight jerking of his hand gave him away. Shaking her head, she turned and headed over to one of the shelves. She had spent a lot of time in the library since she was a little kid and knew almost every inch of it. Swiftly finding the book she was looking for, she pulled it off the shelf, walked over to Paine and dropped it in his lap. He jumped, startled, and picked it up. 

"Give it a read," she suggested, "You might find you like it."

"Yeah, right…" Paine replied, and set it aside. He would've thrown it away, but last time he threw one of Davi's books, he wasn't able to walk for a week.

"I'll have Ellie send something to eat later," Davi told him as she headed to the door and left, leaving Paine to his thoughts again.

* * *

It took Lea only a few minutes to persuade Kai to let her have a look at his injuries. And for that, it meant she would need to take him to the medical ward, the rest were all sent to the kitchen. Tamara immediately disappeared into her sweets store and emerged with bags and bags of sweets that were dispersed between the others in seconds. 

Rena and Ray sat next to each other at the table facing the fireplace. Kenny and Tyson were opposite them while Max and Tamara sat at one end watching them. Raine was standing in front of the fire.

"Was that really a draw?" Kenny asked quietly, glancing around at the others. "I mean, it looked like one, but…"

The door opened and Davi appeared. Rena picked out a sweet and ate it. She left the wrapper on the table.

"What do you want?" Ray asked, eyes narrowed at the other teen.

Davi smirked and moved aside. Ellie entered with a tray laden with food. She placed it on the table, bowed and left. Davi closed the door and sat at the head of the table between Kenny and Ray. "I figured you guys would need something solid to eat."

"Thanks," Rena muttered, turning away. "But I'm not hungry."

"I am!" Tyson declared, and began wolfing down all the food he could. Kenny whacked him on the back of his head. "What?"

Rena had to laugh at that and reached for a roll. Ray did the same. Max and Tamara kept munching on their sweets.

"It's rare for you to join us," Raine said from the couch. She had a packet of crisps in her hands and was crunching away.

Davi shrugged, "Got bored in the library."

"That where Paine is?"

"As always," came the reply. "He's staring at the ceiling, probably watching the snow again."

"No surprises there," Rena joined in.

" 'E's probably sleepin'," Tamara said round a mouthful of chocolate.

"Hey, Davi," Tyson said. She frowned at him. "Mind if we have a match later? I wanna see how strong you are."

Tamara and Rena choked on their food. Raine fell off the couch with tears rolling down her face. She was trying not to laugh out loud. And failing, badly.

"You…hahahaha… wanna…fight….hehehehehe… Davi?"

"Bad idea," Tamara said, shaking her head vigorously. "Very bad idea, believe me."

Tyson leaned across Kenny. "Are you really that strong?"

Davi simply smirked.

Five minutes later, everyone was standing outside wrapped in coats and scarves as Davi and Tyson faced off against each other. Tyson was already in position, waiting for Tamara to signal when to start. Davi was simply standing opposite him. The fountain wasn't exactly her favourite place to battle but she could make do with what she had.

"Ready… Go!" Tamara yelled, and stepped back.

Tyson launched immediately, and Davi watched as Dragoon sped round the makeshift stadium. He frowned across at her.

"Where's your beyblade?" he called.

"You do not wanna know," Tamara muttered under her breath. Rena elbowed her.

Davi smirked when Tyson sent Dragoon closer to her and yelled, "Shadow Bind!"

"Dragoon!" Tyson called out his bit beast when he saw the dog appear in front of Davi. She smirked at him. The dog rose onto its hind legs as Dragoon appeared, and growled as its shadow stretched forward. Tyson watched in amazement as the shadow bound his bit beast in place and found that he couldn't move a muscle. When he looked down, he saw why.

Tamara winced at the memory of being under a similar grasp.

Both Davi and her bit beast could manipulate their shadows and cast it around any object. It was their best and most powerful skill. It was also rare for a blader to 'inherit' their bit beast's abilities, but Davi was close enough to hers for that to happen.

"So, this match is over," Rena said, and began to head inside. "I need something to eat."

"True," Tamara agreed, already following her friend. Davi released her shadow and took a step back.

"You lose," she said, folding her arms. The dog fell back down on all fours and walked back over to her. Dragoon also went back into its blade, which stopped spinning immediately. The attack and defence rings had been bent out of shape.

Tyson's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?"

"Not telling," Davi replied, and went inside with the others.

* * *

The medical ward was silent as Paine entered it. There was no one around, he knew that, they were all down in the kitchen, all except the one person he had come to see. Even Lea had left Kai and gone off to join the others. 

Carefully, he opened the door and prayed it wouldn't squeak. Kai was lying on his side with his back to the door. Paine stepped inside and swung the door shut. Once the lock clicked, he made his way over to the bed and sat in the seat next to it.

"Why are you here?" Kai asked suddenly. Paine looked out the window.

"I'm here to… No, forget it," he stood and started to leave. His hand was on the doorknob when Kai rolled over and watched him.

"Why?" the Russian repeated, sitting up.

"Because…" Paine sighed and turned around. "Fine, I'm sorry. Happy now?"

"No," Kai answered, "Because you're not sorry."

Paine let out another sigh and sat in the chair again. "I was thinking… Maybe you're right. Maybe I should take part in the World Championships, maybe that will give me a chance… at least."

Kai managed a smile. "I look forward to facing you again."

"You should rest," Paine said, standing up. "Lea chased the others off today, but they'll be here tomorrow."

"Night then," Kai said, lying back down. He was asleep within seconds. Paine left without a word and closed the door quietly behind him.

* * *

"This storm's gonna last a while." Davi commented as she stared out the window of the kitchen. 

"And you would know this how?" Tyson asked sceptically from the table. He had his arms folded and chin rested on them, glaring under his hair at Davi.

"Because," she replied.

"That's not an answer!"

Ever since their match two days before, both had been trying their best to outsmart the other, well, mostly it was Tyson who was trying to grow smarter, and Davi who would just look down at him and spin circles around him with tongue twisters, among other things.

"She's right, though," Raine said, also staring out the window. She turned and looked at the others. "Looks like we're gonna be stuck here longer than usual."

"Hey, Max, wanna rematch?" Tamara asked the blond.

"Er… sure," he said after a moment, "But where… The rule's no beyblading in the house, right?"

"Only in the arena," Davi said, folding her arms. She could see where this was gonna go.

"Good! Come on, Maxie," Tamara said, already dragging Max out into the corridor.

"Hey, Tammy, wait! I have to go get Draciel!"

"We can get it on the way."

Davi shook her head and looked around the rest of the group. "So, anyone else want any rematches?"

"Yeah," Tyson muttered, looking at Kenny. "But I still have to get my beyblade fixed."

"Your own fault for getting it messed up in the first place," Davi replied.

Tyson went back to glaring at her. Ray rolled his eyes and took Rena's hand.

"We're gonna go watch them two," he said, and led her away. It was clear from the look in his eye that he had no intention at all of watching the match.

"And maybe have our own rematch," Rena suggested once they were out in the corridor. The door was still open so most of their conversation was heard by the others.

"Which rematch? The arena? Or the bed?"

"Pick one…"

"How 'bout the bed?"

"I'm game."

Davi rolled her eyes and looked over her shoulder out the window. "You worried?" she asked Raine. "You seem a little quiet."

"No, but if this storm doesn't let up soon, they're gonna be stuck here," Raine answered, watching something intently through the glass.

"You have a problem with that?"

"Oh yeah!" Tamara's yell caused both to turn and look at the doors.

"No problem at all."

Davi shook her head, a smirk slowly spreading across her face. "You just wanna fight Kai again, don't you."

It was not a question.

"Yep," Raine answered and headed towards the door. "I'm gonna go see how he's doing."

Kayite, Davi's bit beast, materialized at her side as she watched Raine disappear. She sighed and rubbed her temple with one hand, "Guess it's gonna be a while until we get this place to ourselves."

Kayite shook his head and barked.

"Me too," Davi answered, "Me too."

"Is she talking to that dog?" Tyson muttered to Kenny.

"You should see her out in the kennel."

Paine's voice caused both boys to jump. Tyson spun round so fast, Paine was sure his head would fall off.

"When did you get here?" Kenny asked.

"And why aren't you brooding?" Tyson wandered aloud.

"I don't brood," Paine growled, sitting down opposite Tyson. "And technically he's not a dog, he's Davi's bit beast."

Kayite growled and the boys looked up as the dog literally pounced on them. Davi watched with a grin as all three were chased out of the room.

"That's what you get for calling him a bit beast!" she called after them.

The boys ran to the only place that they knew to be safe: the arena. Once they got there, they found Kai and Raine watching Tamara and Max with something that could be called interest on their faces. Out of breath, they collapsed in the box that the Sirens had used.

"God, remind me… never… to insult that dog again," Tyson said in-between long breaths of air.

"It's worse when you insult Davi herself," Paine told him.

"You two seem to be getting along," Kai said, smirking at them.

So caught up in trying to catch his breath, Paine hadn't noticed he had sat down on Tyson's lap. He swiftly jumped up before anyone could get a camera and photograph that Kodak moment.

"Too late," Raine said, holding up a camera-phone. She had got it not two months ago, who knew that the camera would come in so handy?

"And I win again!" Tamara whooped, grinning across at Max. Raine pocketed her phone and headed down into the arena.

"You coming, Kai?" she called back to him and turned to look at Tamara. "Come on, our turn now. I want to kick his ass this time, like I would have last time if you didn't distract me."

"Well, there'll be plenty of time for that, Raine," Davi called out from her seat. "Just contacted the weather station, seems this storm's gonna be here for a while. And you guys are not going outside in this weather, no pilot's gonna fly in it either."

"Meaning…?" Tyson asked.

"Meaning you guys are stuck here," Davi replied. "For the rest of the winter."

"But what about the World Championships!" Tyson yelled at her.

"They're not for another six months," Davi said, dropping into her chair. "And besides, we could always hold them here."

"She has a point," Paine muttered, earning strange looks from the others. "What? I was just saying…"

"I need the practise," Raine said, "And besides, it doesn't look like we're gonna be able to split Rena and Ray up anytime soon."

"You sure?" Tamara asked, feigning innocence. "I can always get the crowbar."

"Didn't someone want a rematch?" Kai asked Raine, hoping to get as far away from this very weird person as possible. "Weirdo," he muttered under his breath.

"Hey! I'm not weird, just misunderstood!" Tamara called after him.

"This is gonna be murder," Davi said, rubbing her temple. She could already feel a headache coming on, and knew that with the coming snow, it was probably only going to get worse.

She looked over at Paine, at least now he had some peace. No more hate, no more anger. Whatever Kai had said to him when Paine had attacked him had worked better than she could have imagined. She hadn't seen Paine smile in a long time, and neither had the others, and they were taking every advantage of it. She would have to thank Kai later, even though she would probably never hear the end of it if she did.

"So, the secret's out," she muttered, low so that no one would hear even if they were close by. Kayite appeared at her side and she reached out a hand to ruffle his fur. He scowled in dislike but quickly settled down. Her gaze moved to Kai and Raine in the stadium below. They had already launched and were trying to glare each other down. The others were urging them on.

"You can do it, Raine!"

"I promise I won't mention your Ma again!"

"You just did!"

"Oh, sorry, Raine!"

"Kai, come on, you beat her before, you can do it again!"

"Guess we find something else to do for now…" Davi muttered, and looked down at Kayite. "How does training for the World Championship sound to you?"

Kayite barked and she laughed.

"Yeah, getting the others to participate might not be so easy," she agreed with him. "But it might be worth it after all."

**The End**

AN- I'd just like you to know that I HATE endings! I absolutely cannot stand them and hate having to end my stories (which is most likely the reason none of them are complete, except for this one and one or two others) and this ending was murder to try and figure out. Will there be a sequel? Maybe… I know my friends will probably bug me for one, especially since I've left them with this as an ending. Anyways, I hope whoever reads this has enjoyed the story and pretty please review and tell me what you think, this is my first Beyblade fanfic and I'm already in the process of writing a couple more. And to think I already have seven other WIPs that desperately need my attention…


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